changing ancestry boost to 2 free boosts isn't alternative rule or variant rule it is just an option that every player can take durring character creation clarification "proficiency bonus" is equal to your lv + number corresponding to your training level and untrained character don't add thier lv some classes starts as expert in perception not just trained casters instead of class DC have spell save DC of corresponding spell tradition just nitpicking in PF2e there aren't weapon properties there are weapon traits nat 20 also move degrees of success one higher
I'll address these in order! 1. Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough! 2. Thanks for that added clarification! I should have added that in there but I didn't even think to since it's fairly intuitive coming from 5e. 3. It's my understanding that some classes that can cast can get both a class DC and a spell save DC? In either case, I actually covered what you're talking about here. You might have missed it! 4. Haha Yeah I could have sworn I said "weapon traits" somewhere but, if I did say "properties" I was referring to the term in a conventional sense. 5. Someone else pointed out the nat 20 rule earlier and I can't believe I forgot to mention that. I pinned their comment but I think yours covers more information in a relatively concise manner so I'll pin yours now! Thank you!!
@@ConstructedChaos 1. this option was added in recent errata about month ago so if you had physical copy or older version of pdf this rule probably wasn't there
@@JacksonOwex The tricky thing is that while they are absolutely synonyms, they don't mean the same thing in this context. "Variant" rules are a very specific thing in Pathfinder 2e and aren't considered part of the "Core" experience, but are alternate rules and systems that are presented as potential modifications to the game at GM's descretion (like Proficiency without Level or Free Archetype). The ability score option is explicitly not a "Variant" (meaning it's not an assumed thing that needs to be specifically allowed by the GM) but instead is a core option and would need to be specifically banned to not be considered available, similar to the GM banning the Barbarian Class or the Dwarf Ancestry.
Thanks so so so much!! That's great praise coming from you and I'm stoked to make your acquaintance! I definitely enjoyed at least a few of your videos as I poured through the core rulebook!
I'm transition my group into Pathfinder 2e as well. I was stunned to find just about everything I homebrewed to fix 5e at my table was here in the base game of PF2. Looking forward to the Pathfinder content.
This was my outlook as well. I'd always heard that the new 5e rules that everyone liked were taken from PF2e and older editions but I didn't expect them to be so exactly similar.
For a crash course you really should mention archives of nethys and how all the rules and basically everything else (except official adventures) exists for free for anyone to use. All in all, it was a great video though! Glad to see you've found enjoyment in the system
I've been playing D&D since 78 and played 3.5 for many years and got back into D&D after a break from the hobby with 5e, i found I missed the customization that 3.5 provided and Pathfinder 2 gives me that with a less complex rule set than 3.5, loving this version of the game and look forward to more content on this and other channels
I was extremely intimidated at first after watching other videos on the topic that misrepresented the apparent complexity of PF2e. Once I took the time to look it over myself, I felt like I had to give my own take!
@@williamwooley2693 I think they can be overwhelming if you just dive into the core rulebook. But once you actually parse out what it says and compare it, it’s much less so! Good luck to you and your group!
As a player who started on, and played for years on, 3.5e, I found myself warming up to 5e after a few months but feeling it still lacked heavily. It's nice feeling like the classes were more balanced, but I hated that spellcasters felt held back to doing only 1 spell per round unless you're a sorcerer or take the feat that gives you points towards the "meta magic feat" abilities that class has. Also, I felt like while you're able to customize your character's playstyle more in 5e with how you get to choose your skills based on class AND background, plus get little tid bit utility stiff from backgrounds, the fact that feats were tied into your class level AND ability modifier improvements made it seem like you couldn't customize nearly as much as 3.5. And worse yet, if you had garbage rolls, you were forced to either raise the stats you use for everything in and out of combat, or pick feats that you really only used in combat and sometimes came at expense to negative rolls. Yeah, a +10 to damage on a hit is a great boost, but at a -5 roll when your base attack (proficiency) bonus is no higher than 6 can be really costly and result in you missing more than you'd likely hit. Even more so when you typically get 1 or 2 hits tops anyways per round. 5e is still a good system, and very enjoyable and you can just as easily fix these issues yourself via homebrew with little confusion, so hopefully someone new seeing this doesn't get warded off from trying to get into the hobby.
One thing worth mentioning: Opportunity Attacks (or "Reactive Strikes" as they are called now) are not a given: Monsters may or may not be able to attack you if you move, but they can be used to counter movement, ranged attacks, and spellcasting that happens within melee range. The only player class that begins the game with the ability to make reactive strikes is the Fighter. Also, with healing: Pathfinder 2e expects players to regularly tend to each other's wounds: And with magical healing being a limited resource, expect to spend time after combat encounters patching each other up with medical supplies, bandages, and potions to "short rest." And you can take feats that let you do this in battle and increase your efficacy with bandages, meaning with the right build, anyone can be the party healer without magic.
Wow..!!! This has been THE MOST comprehensive video I've EVER seen.. And I served in the Army for ten yrs.. So, the whole video through, I was completely fixated on the system, the difference, the similarities, the "Realness" (as real as one could get in a fantasy game) of it all.. So I'm thinking my next campaign might lean this way.. Hopefully you'll make more of these excellent video tutorial sessions for old-farts like me, who have forgotten more math than we have learned. Thanks again, looking forward to the next one, Jason
This video is positively incredible! From the tight writing, editing, beautiful showcase of PF2E art, and your skilled delivery it oozes quality. Prospective PF2E players are so lucky to have this video as an introductory resource. Thank you.
Oh yes yes yes. I've been playing Pathfinder 2e primarily since the play test came out (I have a special edition hardcover of it). If you have any questions by all means I'm here! Welcome to Pathfinder!!
It took me so long to try it out! Really, it was kinda hard to justify with how well dnd 5e was going for me but I’m glad I’ve dipped my toes! Thanks for the warm welcome!!
A very common optional rule is the Free Archetype rule. With this you gain an extra feat specifically for taking dedication feats. I usually rule only 1 type can be free. This doesn't add much extra power, mostly this adds flavor and options.
I heard about this while in the editing room with this particular video but thought not to add it since I'd already been working on this for like a month haha!! I'll definitely try to mention it if and when I do a more robust deep dive on the way "multiclassing" works in PF2e.
I've been slowly converting my longrunning 5e's campaign NPCs to Pathfinder 2e, and I had a similar moment of "Oh... we were already homebrewing all this!" It's been so fun and such a pleasure. Thank you for this great video to help along the way!
Haha it's pretty wild, right? I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the kind words! I'm working on a spellcasting video next and maybe something to cover all of PF2e's conditions after that so there's more to come!
Great content! A cool thing that you missed in this video is how spellcasting takes advantage of the 3 action system. As an example, Heal is a level 1 spell. (cures living creatures/damages undead creatures) With 1 action it cures/damages 1d8 HP with a touch range With 2 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP+8 with a range of 30ft With 3 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP to all living/undead creatures in a 30ft burst. Additionally, you can cast this spell with a higher level spell slot. For each level increase, add 1d8 to the roll with an additional +8 on the 2 action version.
Thanks for adding this! I wanted to go more in depth on spellcasting in a subsequent video so I didn't load this one down. It's different but not so different that I felt it needed to be covered in a foundational guide like this!
Thank you so much for starting this series. I would love to see more PF2e content from you. If you are to make Class explanation videos, I would love to see what you think of the Alchemist(my fave) and of the Conditions that PF2e has. I am loving the game, though I am still a rookie.
Of course!! Thank you for watching!! I’ll probably post a poll at some point but alchemist should definitely be one of the choices on there since it sounds pretty interesting to me too!
I'm a lifelong RPG player - started with the Basic D&D box set in '82, graduated to AD&D later that year, and playing every iteration since (barring 4th). I've played dozens of TSR, Palladium, & FASA RPGs since then, and got my kids into 5th last year. They, in turn, bought me P2e for Christmas. The hardest part of the transition isn't the rules, but finding a group of face-to-face players. It seems there's simply no support for connecting players in a local region for in-person games and the Pathfinder Society system is daunting in so many ways.
You raise a very valid concern here and it was the reason I'd never given pathfinder a chance in the past. But I do think you may find more luck in the future. PF2e is growing extremely fast and the community has been very open and welcoming to all the newcomers!
I simply joined a 5e game (found on corkboard at FLGS) and recruited its members into my pathfinder 2e playtest game after getting to know them. We've been playing for four years now, alternating systems.
I was converted to pf2 when it came out, and it was love at first sight. However I wish I would had a informative and well presented introductional video like this when I first flaped my Pathfinding wings. :) You earned a new subscriber! Thanks for the video :)
Thanks so much for the sub and the accolades!! I felt exactly the same about the lack of guides when I started so I’ve tried to fill that void a bit over the past few years! Happy adventuring and welcome to the chaos!
You're doing Sarenrae's work. Bless you. Also this briefly hit on something that irritated me since 2e came out. Hearing about all these house rules for 5e players that sounds like they were ripped directly out of pf2e, but then refusing to just play pf2e just hurt my soul.
when i transferred to pf2e i realized alot of the house rules we were using in 5e were already RAW in pf2e. i also realized a couple of the more recent rules added to 5e were already in pf2e.
Awesome video! I have been GMing Pathfinder 2e for about three years now and haven't looked back at DnD 5e once. It is a system that demands a little bit more of the players BUT makes GMing it a breeze. Gone are the days of constantly having to make up rules while playing and then afterwards trying to remember what rule i made up last time. Almoest everything in Pathfinder is codified in rules and even if you find a fringe case which doesnt have any rules the three action economy makes it easy for the GM to make up a rule that is comparable to other, existant, rules that makes it cost an action or two. Can't wait for your next Pathfinder related video's! (Maybe something showcasing a beginner friendly class, the sorcerer, thats not just a worse wizard like in dnd and has awesome customisability while being the most magicky magic class)
Thanks so much for the accolades!! I felt the same way about this system when writing up this video--GMing should be a lot easier as it seems to imply a lot more self-policing of the rules and mechanics for players and I love that!
Can't wait to see your next video! I hope you go deeper into Archetypes in a future video, as well as Versatile Heritages such as Tiefling and Half-Orc.
I'm definitely planning to delve deeper into archetypes at some point in the future! It's the main part of the video I felt I couldn't go as deep as I wanted without making it too long.
As a PF2e GM I love this video. Been with 2e since it dropped a few years ago and this video does a wonderful job as a nice crisp primer. One other thing I love of PF2e is archetypes not being just from other classes. Seemingly endless other flavors of tropes and lore stuff all wrapped into other archetypes.
Hey friend! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and found it useful! I really feel PF2e does a lot right that 5e gets wrong so I can't wait to see what they do with the newly announced revised version!
My group switched to PF2 about 2 years ago, and while I'll always love the game DND, playing a one-shot in 5e as a rogue immediately reminded me why I haven't even thought of going back since. I love the sheer options (which are admittedly overwhelming at first), the tiers of proficiency in... everything, the depth to the tactics of combat, how easy it is to build encounters, and the crit fail/success system. Most of all though, I love what you can easily create. I've got a former lab rat turned bomb maker, an orc bard who scares enemies with his war drums (and special note, PF2 is the first system I've played where Bards are actually good, and fun to play in combat), a robot who uses his instruction manual to reprogram himself for the day's needs (Tome implement Thaumaturge), and a barbarian who rushes into combat not to inflict massive damage, but to start suplexing and body slamming enemies. I haven't had this much fun creating, evolving, and playing characters since the early days of DND 3rd edition.
SKILL CHECKS MATTER! If you can use INTIMIDATION (a Charisma skill) against the opponent's FLAT DC (that is 10+ their bonus) they become FRIGHTENED 1 or on a critical success, FRIGHTENED 2. Why is this powerful, and a great 3rd action option rather than a -10 attack? A frightened opponent loses their Frightened value to their ARMOR CLASS. So they are two easier to hit AND TO CRIT! Skills are free things you can do with your third action that benefit both YOU and YOUR PARTY. Welcome to the chewy side of Fantasy Role Playing. Where teamwork and tactics matter!
When it comes to character creations, in D&D you build your character around your stats where in Pathfinder you build your stats around your character.
Thank you so much for this video! The party I’m in has been playing a campaign for 3 years now in DnD 5e, but we will all also be playing the next installment of our DM’s world’s story in a new campaign. For this subsequent campaign our DM has decided to switch us to PF 2e, so I’m working on learning the system. This video is getting sent straight to the group chat for its succinctness, enthusiasm, clarity, and broad coverage. Will be checking out more on your channel :)
Great video, I'm looking into PF2e and so far I'm loving all of it. Really hoping you make more videos like this one, I'm looking forward to making my very first PF2e character after getting to know as many options available as possible!
Thanks so much, Raul! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I definitely intent to put out some more PF2e content very soon! Probably going to start with some class guides!
just finished making mine in prep for my 1st session this weekend. made my take of an "optimized" ranger coming from my time in 5e. of course pf2e is different but i'm curious how my "5e optimization training" translates well in pf2e.
I agree, Oracles were one of my favorite classes in PF1 and seem to have made the transition to 2e much better than some of my other faves (such as Barbarian and Alchemist); and Thaumaturges are just flat out one of the most unique and flavorful classes in all editions of DnD/PF combined, while still being one of the best narrative and aesthetic fits for most standard settings.
Hell yeah! Welcome to the chaos, friend! I'll have a look at both of those soon--though I have heard that the Oracle is pretty complex. I may save that one for a later video as I get more cozy within the mechanics of PF2e.
Wow. I watched a few videos to understand the fundamental differences of DND 5E and PF2e and this video was the best narrated and structured of all. 20 minutes staying on topic, good visualizations and interesting narrated. I would like to watch more PF2e stuff from you!
Thanks so much! All that OGL crud couldn't keep me down for long. I said what I had to say and it seems like the internet is ready to consume regular TTRPG content again and that makes me so happy haha.
If you are doing Class videos Barbarian would be a good starting point. Easy to show how a 5e Barbarian is the same as any other 5e Barbarian with the subclass only adding a tiny bit of flavour , while PF2 Barbarians can be very diverse, even at level 1
Hell yeah! Someone else suggested the barb and I actually still have to make a barb guide for 5e as well. So, maybe I can make them at the same time and sortof cross-reference things within the videos!
Excellent video. One addendum: it is easy to heal up with Treat Wounds (medicine checks when you have training and tools) out of combat. So even though sleeping doesn't restore all HP like in 5e, you can heal people to full HP over the course of several hours if you are trained in medicine. Or have magic healing.
Oh wow! Thank you so much for pointing this out! It, I’d course follows that this would be the case and I knew that but I can’t believe I forgot to mention it specifically! I’ll pin your comment so no one is confused on this!
@@ConstructedChaos oh, thank you! I understand why you could forget to mention it, cause nat 20 is rarely something else but crit success, let alone failure or crit failure.
Absolutely love Pathfinder 2e. It’s a bit of a rough transition for at least one of my players since they still can’t stomach the fact that the average chance to hit/beat dc of monsters is usually a 50-60% chance if you don’t set up for flanks, apply buffs or debuffs. I don’t want to deprive them of enjoyment, but at the same time my other players adore the versatility and team emphasis on the new system, which makes it challenging to go back. Perhaps some of this will be mitigated once they reach second level and have more spells and abilities to make rolls easier, but I’m worried next session will set him off (we’re doing the beginner box and the next session will have a kobold with 18 AC).
I’m sure some of the learning curve will come in the form of understanding that team emphasis the more they play in the system! Maybe try mentioning that fact to them so they know to be aware of it! I know I was unaware of that necessary focus until I started really researching and deep diving for this video!
This sounds like one player is a square peg being forced into a round hole. Sweet Jebus, let that player find a game he/she enjoys. Not everyone likes PF2E - my 5e game has PF2E refugees. The player traffic moves in both directions.
@@simonfernandes6809 Not everyone loves something automatically. It can take time. Going on 13 years ago when me and my group were still playing 3.5 we heard of Pathfinder 1e. When we first looked over the Core Rule Book we didn't like many of the changes, but liked others. Maybe 6 months later we gave Pathfinder 1e a try and never looked. Change can't be disheartening.
@@sacredbeastzenon You need to listen to what you are saying: 'Not everyone loves something automatically.' Square peg. Round hole. If they don't enjoy the game, don't force them. Not everyone likes what you like.
@@simonfernandes6809 So if one out of four players has a problem with an aspect of a system you should do what exactly? Play another system just for their sake? Kick them from the group? I have a hard time understanding what you’re really saying the OP should do.
I was actually moving to PF2E before all the OGL nonsense started, but I'm still learning. The Exploration Modes and healing/dying stuff is what I'm going to be focusing on learning better next.
Good on ya! I've heard a lot of people having the most trouble with the dying mechanics but I think it's pretty easy to remember once it clicks. Happy adventuring!
I try not to be that guy but I am always SO happy when someone tries a new system. I'm never get into someone's mentions when they complain about DnD, but every time someone complains about DnD not being good at a specific thing that Pathfinder is good at I REALLY want to let them know as much as I know they're not going to take that advice.
nice! ditto! recent exile here and definitely enjoying the new system which is more defined and structured. less DM fiat/"mother may i." playing in my 1st campaign as a ranger with a sorc archetype.
I really enjoy Pathfinder 2e. There is so much you can do to customize your character. Many variant rules can allow you further customization with the Gm's permission. The one thing we do at my table is Roll for Hit Points rather than take the maximum.
I think for class comparison, it may make sense to start with martials and within that scope with fighters so you have a good point of reference in terms of their abilities and damage output comparatively.
It should be noted that it's not an 'optional rule' to pick +2 to two stats instead of the default option, it's a core rule that you can pick between either. Optional rules are things GMs need to ok, like stamina or bonus archetype.
Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough!
Great summary, although Pathfinder does have short rests in a way. Medicine skill does a lot of healing, and you're pretty much expected to heal to full after each combat and there's a plethora of magical and non magical healing available. Health is not a daily resource but a in combat resource.
Right right. Short rests don’t really exist as they do in dnd 5e. Take special note of my wording here. I didn’t want to burden this video with semantics but I’m sure I’ll be able to cover what you’re talking about as I begin to cover classes and what resources of theirs come back after a “short time” haha. As for the healing, for sure, there is healing available! But, I don’t think my points are invalid with that in mind. Again, this is a topic I’m sure I can deep dive in another video. But, the dying/wounded system of PF2e is still much more threatening than making death saves in DND 5e regardless!
2:45 - It's actually not an optional rule to select any two ability scores for +2. It's an Alternative Option. That's not just semantics in PF2E. An Optional Rule is one you need to beg your GM to use. An Alternative Option is an official rule that means by default you can choose between it an the 'other' alternative(s). As in: Not using it is a GM Homebrew. This matters when approaching tables. The end result is the same: the GM could say no, but then they're making a house rule. So most GMs are more likely to 'go with the flow' for Alternatives. Also if a player is getting involved in "Pathfinder Society Games" the difference really matters as house rules are out but Alternative Options are in.
My DM is slowly switching over to Pathfinder via switching out mechanics here and there and this video helped a lot. I'm just not sure where I can access info on how to make characters and learn the basic rules like I can with DND 5e where there's already a website dedicated to making characters and synthesizing source material. Thanks for the informative video!
I think that there’s something in the works to that end but hopefully this video series can serve as a good substitute until then! Thanks for watching and I’m glad that it seemed to have helped!! Happy adventuring!
the entire ruleset is available for free on Archives of Nethys (and fully legally). popular character builder are pathbuilder2e and wanderer's guide, where pathbuilder loads better whilst wanderer's has more guidance. the people who initially made dndbeyand actually made pathfinder nexus, where they are working on a character builder, though currently they just have all the books with pdfs optimized for digital screens.
That's been around. If you just want stat blocks for monsters, descriptions for items, and class overviews, go to Archives Of Nethys. If you want to be able to build a character, use Pathbuilder 2e. I'm sure there's a different service out there, and I'm sure plenty of people in the PF2e community have some form of gripe with how Pathbuilder 2e works, but it still works all the same.
Great video. Sounds like the whole dying/wounded mechanic could use it's own video. Going to watch that section again, but I was definitely rocking the the 'huh' expression after that section.
Thanks so much! And, yeah, haha. I had to read over it a few times to make sure I understood but the concept itself isn't too hard to remember once you grasp it and I think it makes for some really interesting combats when you have a dying party member on the battlefield!
I felt everything was right on point. I just bought the 2.E pathfinder book and starter box last week. And I feel like easier to grasp and more content
Really impressed with the flexibility and options. Seems like a lot of thought has gone into making all these classes fun. Looking forward to trying this out sometime. Do you have any affiliate links if I wanted to grab any Pathfinder products so it kicks a few bucks your way?
Seb, you are seriously too kind!! I don't have affiliate links for the PF2e books yet (as I like to encourage support of local game stores instead of amazon) but I think a lot of places are out of stock anyway right now so maybe I should consider that haha.
I moved from D&D5e to PF2 about a year ago, and I absolutely love it. The system mechanics allow for better storytelling: in 5e, a level 17 character has 4 more points of proficiency than a level 1 character. But in PF2, the level 17 likely has a proficiency of 25, without gear or feat bonuses: the characters MECHANICALLY get better, showing the real progress they gain for adventuring.
The treat wounds vs short rest difference in the systems feels like it largely depends on the context of the adventure too. If the party has no current time constraints, nothing seems to really stop them from spending 5 hours to treat wounds over and over until they're back to full HP. On the other hand, if there is time pressure then they have to make the call to press on or not. It feels really context dependant.
That's a fair point but I do feel as though most campaigns and sessions include at least some sense of urgency that prevents such long recovery periods during a given arc.
Excellent vid. I'm learning alot and yes we as a table have taken a break from dnd (and ttrpgs in general) but we've all agreed that this "downtime" is to be spent learning PF2E both as a player and eventually as a DM. so most definitely i'm all in on more vids like this to learn the game. i don't foresee myself returning to 5E for some time. i'd rather learn PF2E or play video games i've had on my docket for awhile. some things i liked and didn't liked: 1. some of the systems like dying sounds a bit ore complicated. i prefer the simplicity of 5e in this case. however, it seems to me that a dedicated healer (and avoiding combat encounters) is more viable in PF2E than in 5e. i could be wrong though. 2. i like that the system seems similar to dnd 3.5 where i used to optimize and build theorycraft as well. excited to hear your take on the classes. perhaps eventually a step by step build a character video as well like with one of those apps like pathbuilder? 3. i like how ancestry (race) is handled here and how class progression doesnt provide dead levels (which discourages multiclassing). i do love multiclassing though so i'm happy there's still some form of it here by picking up the dedication stuff. but just to make sure i'm understanding it correctly, there's no alchemist champion here in the "5e sense" right? 4. i liked the feat variety and weapon traits as it helps characters feel more unique but imo the number of conditions can be simplified and trimmed down. 40 is a bit much. 5. i liked how criticals work and it does encourage stacking numbers. i like numbers. :)
Haha thanks as always, Rob! I like numbers too--but maybe not as much as you do! Seems like you're enjoying your PF2e adventures as well so I'm looking forward to learning alongside ya!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah also nice to learn new world lore along with the mechanics of PCs. i like how the rules are more defined in pf2e (except for recall knowledge).
Note: you can take as many free actions as you want, so long as their triggers or prerequisites are met. Also, treat wounds is so effective, especially at lower levels, and so available that every party will have at least one non-magic healer. Plus the encounter design mechanics would really like you to be at full hitpoints.
I think it is worth noting that the short rest is not dead, it just looks different. You have these exploration activities you can do, that takes 10 minutes. If you have training in the medicine skill, you can patch up the wounded, you can try that once per hour per person, so if it is light wounds, you might do it just once in 10 minutes, and short rest over. But if the wounds are more severe, you might want to wait that hour to do it again before you continue on your adventure. Similarly a lot of classes gets focus points they can use on certain spells, these focus points also recover at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes, when the character is doing something class appropriate (the cleric prays for the party, the bard sings, etc. it is left purposefully vague so you can decide what refocuses your character). So yes, there is no official mechanic called a short rest. But a party will frequently want to take 10 minutes after a fight for focus points and healing, and maybe several hours if you need multiple medicine checks to bring someone to full hit points. Typically with the medicine skill, and some healing abilities that only require these focus points that come back after 10 minutes, most people are actually full health by the time they go to bed. Out of combat healing is quite readily available, which is on purpose, that means most of the time, you have full health when you enter a combat. That is one of several reasons the encounter building system in PF2e is much better at predicting how hard a fight will be.
That was quite awesome. As someone who started out hoarding 3rd edition, Pathfinder 2e shouldn't be too hard. I mostly just am overwhelmed by the history of new settings like Golarion.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And you should definitely have an easy time with the transition to PF2. That said, I'm not familiar at all with the lore and settings yet so you might know better than I would!
13:20 slight correction. There is no direct limit on how many free actions you can use. Assuming they are applicable you can use them whenever and however many times you want
The only limitation I know of is that you can only have one action trigger per thing that happens for each character. You can’t use two free actions when say an enemy leaves your threat range unless stated otherwise
Hell yeah. Im hoping that more people try playing pathfinder, I am a DnD hater so when newbies understand how great PF 2-e is it brings a smile to my face.
This was an amazing way to help players! Could you provide a similar aid to GM's? I've been running 5e for 9 years because it's simple and translatabe, but always leaving me wanting something else from it. I love the idea of P2e but a little lost on how to get started running the game :)
That's a great suggestion! I'll try to put something together sometime in the future--especially now that PF2e's revised version is out. What sort of thing would you like to see covered in a video like that?
@ConstructedChaos stuff like an in depth look at the balance system / guide to running monsters and each action anyone can take in combat (5e has dodge, dash, shoves&grapple attack, use object or magic item, ect.) how skills are run differently, and other constants of the game for the GM to keep track of (like in 5e there is passive perception and spell save DC, exhaustion, ect.) TL;DR What the GM needs to do in a given session before and during the game
As a DM, I cannot stress enough just how better combat is in PF2e. In 5e, I have to constantly pull punches, pretend monsters are dumb, or be sad because the 2 claws and a bite meme has affected 3 combats now. in PF2e, I get to play without pulling any punches because the MATH is much tighter, the actions are wildly more varied and NPCs can act like PCs in all regards. They dont need special things to be able to grab or demoralize in their stat blocks like 5e does. The Encounter difficult ratings MEAN something and I can 100% rely on a severe encounter being severe, a low encounter being low. Above all else, I get to play as smart as I can for the NPCs. There is no fumbling rolls pretending a hit is a miss because it would absolutely nuke the battle now or kill a player because of bad math. I have campaigned Strahd, Phandelver, Descent into Avernus for 5e and I did not have as much fun as I do now in PF2e adventures that are written more concisely and better organized in every possible way. WOTC DOESNT SELL COMPLETE PRODUCTS.
Well said! At the very least, I may start slowly incorporating rules from PF2e into my 5e games in the hopes that I can get the players to transition over fully!
@@ConstructedChaos same for me. I'm debating whether it's easier to homebrew both for 5e and do the work myself. Or if I can get my players to learn a new system.
I started with D&D 3.5 so all of the pathfinder mechanics are awesome in my book, plus some of the grievances I had with 3.5 have been addressed in PF2E so looking forward to GMing my first table since 3.5 because I had to take a step back from ttrpg because of work and a few medical issues, but I am back in it and to tell you the truth I played some 5E and missed many of the 3.5 rules.
nice! i started dnd with 3.5e myself and definitely missed certain stuff there like how they handled psions compared to 4/5E. i haven't checked out the psychic yet but i'm glad to have made the switch from 5e to pf2e recently as alot of of my grievances of 5e are handled better in pf2e. plus pf2e resources are so accessible!
I began with 5e but I'd always wanted to try 3.5e. It seemed like the most popular edition besides. And, now it makes sense to me why 5e saw such mass adoption but 3.5 is still hailed by many hardcore fans as being the best.
@@ConstructedChaos my take is that 3.5E appealed to the gamer. 5E tried to appeal more to the casual/newbie while trying to balance not to lose the hardcore gamer customer base. can't blame wotc for this approach though because at the end of the day it's about making the most amount of money for them. not necessarily putting out the best product. a balance can eventually be struck imo but not with their current leadership of money-hungry executives who don't really care for nor are passionate for the game.
@@TheRobversion1 I think that's a great assessment. I'll hold out hope for the future but I'll be happy enough with anything that gets more people into the hobby--even if that means I move to PF2e permanently.
Love the idea of hero points, it gives you player Caracter a chance to pull of a crazy anime scene without being too op, like imagine your Caracter is about to die, you have hero points, and you explain how somehow by either intervention from the gods, or an internal will. you refuse to die, you will succeed in your cause and you will fight You could have the villain say something to light a fire in the hero, or have the hero replace on all that they would lose if they were to die in that moment, and get that sudden inner strength to keep going, That's one of my favorite parts of anime is when the hero is almost about to give up but gets that second wind, and the fact that pathfinder lets you create those story's, say those inner monologues to your friends and hype up the rest of the table, that made me pick up this game yesterday, (i know you could add that rule into D&D but i just don't like the company)
My regular play group has been pretty receptive towards switching if I decide we should! However, DND is still the larger TTRPG so that's what we're playing for now.
Hahaha understandable--it is over 600 pages after all! I'll probably move to create some class guides next and maybe some videos that cover differences in spellcasting rules and other mechanics!
This is really good video, one of the better ones I've seen on the subject, and I've been watching quite a few. But I always feel like an idiot when I hear so many people talk about PF2's "perceived complexity" because it really seems like that perception is reality. That said, I'm also an idiot, so that may be where the feeling comes from. For all the amazing things that I'm looking forward to when I start running a game like the action economy, the crit system, the character customization, etc, it's still really difficult not to become overwhelmed by the idea of knowing dozens and dozens of Encounter Actions, Skill Actions, Conditions, the differences in the states of detection like Undetected and Unnoticed. It's very overwhelming. Videos like this are helpful, so thanks. I'll definitely be looking for more.
feel free to ask questions here. As a fellow 5e immigrant, i'm enjoying learning the pf2e rules and would be nice to get more pf2e discussion going on in this channel.
Haha you're not an idiot! I had to read a few rules over and over to get them into my own thick skull bc reading comprehension is hard. But, thinking back, it took me a while to fully grasp 5e rules when I first started my TTRPG adventures!
@TheRobversion1 @@ConstructedChaos I think a big source of the complexity is the rigidity of the system. In 5e, the rules were basically, "Take what your players want to do, find an applicable skill, set a DC, and ask for a roll." Simple. Too simple to be honest; simple to a fault. It seems like Pathfinder overcorrects this problem. With PF, I'm worried that when a player tells you what they want to do, it's going to require a lot of back and forth to the book to look at the list of like 3-dozen Skill Actions to see if what they're referring to is already laid out in the rules. Then, with each of those actions having like 2 or 3 "tags" associated with it and having to check to see if any of the 40-some conditions affect actions with those tags... it just seems like it'll take a lot of referencing. Admittedly, we don't start our game until next week, so perhaps in practice it'll play better than it reads. But even though it's an in-person game, I'm still running it in Foundry VTT, cuz it's an awful lot to wrap my head around.
@@nextlevel8822 I do think the system lends itself better to TTRPG veterans. A lot of the mechanics make sense enough that you can reasonably infer them 90% of the time but, for a new player with not much TTRPG experience, I can see how the practice of truly knowing how your character works could be overwhelming and not fully understood. That's to say that I mostly agree with the points you raise here! I just think it'll get easier as you play with the system!
Welcome to the Math side of things. I love Pathfinder and I'm glad more people are wanting to try it out. If you ever have any questions or need some character artwork let me know. I'm going to be working on the Galoma tokens next week.
Athletics is a very useful skill, as it is used for a lot of combat tricks, such as tripping, grabbing fo a grapple, and disarming. These can be very useful as they put different conditions on an opponent, depending upon your level of success.
Hey Chaos. Happy weekend! here's your GM question of the week: A little context 1st. my GM and i got into an argument this weekend on the rules of invisibility. basically, i have a leather armor that allows me to activate invisibility as a 2nd level spell (the invisibility breaks when you directly or indirectly cause harm). so in a tough fight with all my allies plus my pet wolf down and with me left standing (i'm a ranger if you remember so i'm in the back) when it got to my turn what i did was turn invisible. while the enemy was gloating, taunting and seeking to find me, i told my GM i'd be striding over to a downed ally and using battle medicine to pop them back up while telling them telepathically not to stand up until i give the signal (our bard has telepathy running). he said "ok after you heal him, your invisibility breaks." i ask why? i'm not directly causing harm to an enemy. he said yes but i'm indirectly causing harm by reviving my allies who could harm our enemies and thus would break invisibility RAW. i disagreed. my take on this if i were GMing is that an effect/spell must have the enemy as one of it's targets and then harm them directly or indirectly to break invisibility. imo, if i target my allies or myself with buff spells like haste or heal them, even if doing so helps them harm our enemies it shouldn't break invisibility. in the same vein, i don't think summoning breaks invisibility either nor does conjuring a hazard like entangle if an enemy isn't in the AOE. imo the way my GM was ruling it is that any "combat spell" in pf2e would break invisibility and thus the make the spell useless in combat unless a player uses the level 4 version. how would you rule this?
Hmmm healing with invisibility is definitely a weird grey area. Hostile actions in the core rulebook are defined as "A hostile action is one that can harm or damage another creature, whether directly or indirectly, but not one that a creature is unaware could cause harm." So it's a bit of a stretch but I can see where your GM is coming from. It seems like this is maybe one of the few open-ended rules in Pathfinder 2e. Personally, I'd see this and feel it could be taken advantage of. I kinda feel like 5e actually handles this better but I think I would have allowed you to do what you were doing. I would not allow conjuring something like entangle even if an enemy isn't in the AOE because your intent would likely be to cause harm to them indirectly.
@@ConstructedChaos yeah i think paizo could've done a better job with this in defining what's hostile and what's indirect harm. personally, i limited it to targets as qualifiers as this eliminates the vagueness of what's indirect/hostile as arguments can be valid for both sides and the argument would never end "satisfactorily." with a qualifier such as "targets", imo, it's clear if something is hostile or not (the act of targeting the enemy is hostile). for clarity for indirect, i'd add that perhaps you aimed a spell with splash dmg at an object. the enemy isn't the main target but get hits with the splash dmg. i'd consider that indirect harm. to further add on what's qualified and direct, i focused on the words "ACTION that can harm or dmg another CREATURE." so imo the action that you take, whether its an ability or a spell, if it doesn't cause dmg or harm to another creature on the turn you executed it is consider non-hostile. if its causes harm/dmg to another creature on the turn you executed it then i consider it hostile. for example, healing an ally. it doesnt cause dmg or harm. if that ally, just doesn't harm another creature for the rest of the fight, retaining the invisibility becomes valid then if the ally attacks it becomes invalid according to the GM. I eliminate this "future potential" from my own reading of the rules. i focus on whether the action causes harm/dmg now, not factoring it what other sets of actions can be done in the future to cause it. like if i haste someone, and they dont attack anyone anymore then the act of hasting isn't really hostile. or if i summon a creature and i don't command it to attack an enemy. or with the entangle example, if an enemy isn't in that area, they arent harmed. they are only possibly harmed if they choose to enter the entangled area or if someone shoves them there (again potential future actions). if the enemies decide not to cross the entangled area and pelt us with ranged attacks/spells, the act of casting entangle was simply a distraction/wasted spell which wasn't harmful. anyway i hope you got my point there about potential harm (this is where my GM stands and i think where you stand as well) vs. actual/already happening harm (this is where i am). do you have any other thoughts or edge-cases for this?
@@TheRobversion1 Oh I definitely get where you're coming from here and I do totally agree that Paizo should have been clearer on things. As it is, I think the interpretation is left up to the DM but, oddly enough, I prefer how 5e handles this. I worry that allowing invisible creatures to just perform any action outside of an attack without breaking the invisibility makes it a lot more powerful. I'd probably home-brew that actions outside of interacting with an object, picking a pocket, etc. would drop your invisibility.
@@ConstructedChaos on this aspect yes i prefer 5e's take on it too. actually it's not just an attack that breaks it. anything that causes harm/dmg. a trip breaks it. intimidating breaks it. any spell that targets the enemy for dmg or a condition breaks it. there's still many that break it. personally, if i was playing at your table and those are the only acceptable actions, i'd just not bother to use invisibility ever. it becomes a useless spell. why? because stealth does all of these things already without resource expenditure or needing to get a caster dedication/magic items. skill/ancestry feats like legendary sneak, very, very sneaky and ceaseless shadows exist which also take stealth up another level. i do agree though that there could be more restrictions but there has to be a balance wherein actually using a spell is better than using stealth but not as powerful as higher levelled spells like mislead or 4th level invisibility. or perhaps just make invisibility a 3rd level spell to begin with.
@@TheRobversion1 Hmmm you make a sound argument for invisibility being underpowered in the current 5e meta and, while I'm not sure I agree, I can see what you're saying and I do think that it should either become a higher level spell with more use case. Really, the actions it can perform just need to be better spelled out.
this is such a well produced video and i loved it. but one thing i think should be mentioned is the mindset is completeley different. there is way more emphasis on team work that you just dont see in 5e. this is because of the buffs and debuffs that happen during combat. trying to get your barbarian that crit by reducing that +10 threshold to crit and seeing that they are coming up in the turn order really changes the game. this is the same for casters and thats why people say they are nerfed but dont understand that they are more team players than individual burst novas. i think this should be reallllly stressed when coming into this system.
Thanks so much for the accolades! I did touch on this point very briefly a couple of times but I didn't want to dwell on it too long since the video was already approaching the 30min mark. I'll be sure to make an "advanced combat guide" at some point in the future as well as other companion videos like "advanced spellcasting". This one was just to get the foundation laid and the ball rolling!
If you do end up doing PF2 class overviews, I think the Ranger is a good one to start, considering how underwhelming they are in DnD5 and how PF2 actually does them justice.
The ranger has gotten a lot better in 5e since Tasha's came out. But, it's one of my favorite classes conceptually so I wouldn't mind starting there with PF2e!
Ohhh that gives me a thought! Maybe I can do two barbarian guides--one for dnd and one for pathfinder and make a few comparisons here and there! Thanks for the suggestions!
@@ConstructedChaos It would be great to show how two 1st level Human Barbarians in PF2 could be very different while two 1st level Human Barbarians in 5e would be exactly the same
I am learning PF2e to DM for my friends. The more I learn about the system the more I'm loving it. The balancing is sooo much better. Character creation with the heritages and backgrounds really helps create some depth to who the character is. Even for people who don't normally create a backstory. The Rune system for magic items is fantastic and allows you to use your great great grandpa's sword through the entire campaign without falling behind. Also, Paizo (PF2e publisher) supports Archives of Nethys and shown that they care about the community by their stance they took when WOTC tried pulling their BS.
Also, one tip for character creation. For some reason its not called out real well. But your character gets 4 free ability boosts during creation. It's outlined in step 6 of the character creation process in the core rulebook and can be easy to overlook.
Just one correction on the healing part. Actually healing in Pathfinder is free. As you can threat wounds once every hour, for a substatial healing. So you gain few hit points from only resting, but you can threat wound before you go to sleep and when you wake up. So you are expected to be always at close to max HP in encounters.
I’m subscribing in the hopes there will be more Pathfinder 2e content. I just picked up the players guide after the WOTC debacle and comments from Kyle Brink and I’m excited to learn the system so I can run it at my table.
Thanks and welcome to the chaos!! There will definitely be more pathfinder down as we go but I'll probably continue to publish DND-related material as well. WOTC opened the door for me to explore other TTRPGs. I'm hoping they don't push me away from DND entirely in the future but who knows?
Since you asked. I would like to see direct class conversions, specifically classes and subclasses 2e doesn't have like warlock and eldritch knight. I would recommend new converted campaigns use the free archtype variant rule. Any advice on imitating the subclasses with archtypes would be very helpful. I need to help my eldritch knight player recreate his concept. I'm converting my DnD5e campaign to PF2e. This vid is right on the mark for me. I'll put my time where my mouth is and sub to this channel.
Eldritch knight can be made through either the magus or the thaumaturge depending on what you prefer. As for the warlock that would probably be a witch or thaumaturge depending how you play them
Thanks so much for watching and welcome to the chaos!! Seeing as how well this video did as a light comparison between 5e and PF2e, I wouldn't be opposed to continuing this series in that same light! Thanks for the suggestion!
The interesting thing with pf2 monsters is how they make you think. Often a hard to hit monster can be trounced by save spells and SKILLS either doing direct damage or debuffing it into something manageable.
I'll probably try to cover the base classes (for the most part) starting out. But the thaumaturge is definitely one that I've seen a lot of people suggesting so I'm sure it won't be long before I get there!
@@ConstructedChaos I really appreciate it! I've already sent your vid to a few of my friends who play 5e because out of the various guides I've seen it was easily one of the best at translating the real differences. Very happy to subscribe and looking forward to more of your content in whatever form it takes!
@@TheRobversion1 remember your Hero Points and that Crit successes and fails are +/- 10 to the DC of the check, respectively. DC is easy to calculate if you are in a pinch-- relevant stat + 10. And remember your skill actions like Tumble Through and Feint. Best of luck!
changing ancestry boost to 2 free boosts isn't alternative rule or variant rule it is just an option that every player can take durring character creation
clarification "proficiency bonus" is equal to your lv + number corresponding to your training level and untrained character don't add thier lv
some classes starts as expert in perception not just trained
casters instead of class DC have spell save DC of corresponding spell tradition
just nitpicking in PF2e there aren't weapon properties there are weapon traits
nat 20 also move degrees of success one higher
I'll address these in order!
1. Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough!
2. Thanks for that added clarification! I should have added that in there but I didn't even think to since it's fairly intuitive coming from 5e.
3. It's my understanding that some classes that can cast can get both a class DC and a spell save DC? In either case, I actually covered what you're talking about here. You might have missed it!
4. Haha Yeah I could have sworn I said "weapon traits" somewhere but, if I did say "properties" I was referring to the term in a conventional sense.
5. Someone else pointed out the nat 20 rule earlier and I can't believe I forgot to mention that. I pinned their comment but I think yours covers more information in a relatively concise manner so I'll pin yours now!
Thank you!!
@@ConstructedChaos 1. this option was added in recent errata about month ago so if you had physical copy or older version of pdf this rule probably wasn't there
@@einkar4219 Ahhhh that explains the confusion! Thank you very much!
You know "option", "alternative", and "variant" are basically all synonyms right?!
As are "trait" and "property"!
@@JacksonOwex The tricky thing is that while they are absolutely synonyms, they don't mean the same thing in this context. "Variant" rules are a very specific thing in Pathfinder 2e and aren't considered part of the "Core" experience, but are alternate rules and systems that are presented as potential modifications to the game at GM's descretion (like Proficiency without Level or Free Archetype). The ability score option is explicitly not a "Variant" (meaning it's not an assumed thing that needs to be specifically allowed by the GM) but instead is a core option and would need to be specifically banned to not be considered available, similar to the GM banning the Barbarian Class or the Dwarf Ancestry.
This was excellent! I have a passion for teaching PF2 through my vids and this is a great resource!
Thanks so so so much!! That's great praise coming from you and I'm stoked to make your acquaintance! I definitely enjoyed at least a few of your videos as I poured through the core rulebook!
Jeezus yall are sad, smdh 🤣
@@vamphunterx Why do you feel the need to mock people for having enough passion to want to share information about their hobby?
@@vamphunterx makes me think you are probably the sad one if you have nothing better to do than mock people
@@vamphunterx great self-reflection bub
I'm transition my group into Pathfinder 2e as well. I was stunned to find just about everything I homebrewed to fix 5e at my table was here in the base game of PF2. Looking forward to the Pathfinder content.
This was my outlook as well. I'd always heard that the new 5e rules that everyone liked were taken from PF2e and older editions but I didn't expect them to be so exactly similar.
For a crash course you really should mention archives of nethys and how all the rules and basically everything else (except official adventures) exists for free for anyone to use.
All in all, it was a great video though! Glad to see you've found enjoyment in the system
Very true! I'll make sure to add a link to it in the description!
I've been playing D&D since 78 and played 3.5 for many years and got back into D&D after a break from the hobby with 5e, i found I missed the customization that 3.5 provided and Pathfinder 2 gives me that with a less complex rule set than 3.5, loving this version of the game and look forward to more content on this and other channels
I was extremely intimidated at first after watching other videos on the topic that misrepresented the apparent complexity of PF2e. Once I took the time to look it over myself, I felt like I had to give my own take!
@@ConstructedChaos I love that the differences from 5e isn't overwhelming, I hope my players will feel the same way
@@williamwooley2693 I think they can be overwhelming if you just dive into the core rulebook. But once you actually parse out what it says and compare it, it’s much less so! Good luck to you and your group!
As a player who started on, and played for years on, 3.5e, I found myself warming up to 5e after a few months but feeling it still lacked heavily. It's nice feeling like the classes were more balanced, but I hated that spellcasters felt held back to doing only 1 spell per round unless you're a sorcerer or take the feat that gives you points towards the "meta magic feat" abilities that class has. Also, I felt like while you're able to customize your character's playstyle more in 5e with how you get to choose your skills based on class AND background, plus get little tid bit utility stiff from backgrounds, the fact that feats were tied into your class level AND ability modifier improvements made it seem like you couldn't customize nearly as much as 3.5. And worse yet, if you had garbage rolls, you were forced to either raise the stats you use for everything in and out of combat, or pick feats that you really only used in combat and sometimes came at expense to negative rolls. Yeah, a +10 to damage on a hit is a great boost, but at a -5 roll when your base attack (proficiency) bonus is no higher than 6 can be really costly and result in you missing more than you'd likely hit. Even more so when you typically get 1 or 2 hits tops anyways per round. 5e is still a good system, and very enjoyable and you can just as easily fix these issues yourself via homebrew with little confusion, so hopefully someone new seeing this doesn't get warded off from trying to get into the hobby.
@@IStillJustLikeCats if you have to hombrew that means the core system failed that means 5e failed
One thing worth mentioning: Opportunity Attacks (or "Reactive Strikes" as they are called now) are not a given: Monsters may or may not be able to attack you if you move, but they can be used to counter movement, ranged attacks, and spellcasting that happens within melee range. The only player class that begins the game with the ability to make reactive strikes is the Fighter.
Also, with healing: Pathfinder 2e expects players to regularly tend to each other's wounds: And with magical healing being a limited resource, expect to spend time after combat encounters patching each other up with medical supplies, bandages, and potions to "short rest." And you can take feats that let you do this in battle and increase your efficacy with bandages, meaning with the right build, anyone can be the party healer without magic.
Both excellent points! Thanks for chiming in here!
This is the most comprehensive video on transitioning to 2e I've seen so far. Thanks.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you found it helpful!
Wow..!!!
This has been THE MOST comprehensive video I've EVER seen..
And I served in the Army for ten yrs..
So, the whole video through, I was completely fixated on the system, the difference, the similarities, the "Realness" (as real as one could get in a fantasy game) of it all..
So I'm thinking my next campaign might lean this way..
Hopefully you'll make more of these excellent video tutorial sessions for old-farts like me, who have forgotten more math than we have learned.
Thanks again, looking forward to the next one,
Jason
Thanks so much for the accolades here, Jason! I'm so happy you found this helpful! Definitely more guides like this are on the way!
This video is positively incredible! From the tight writing, editing, beautiful showcase of PF2E art, and your skilled delivery it oozes quality. Prospective PF2E players are so lucky to have this video as an introductory resource. Thank you.
Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Oh yes yes yes. I've been playing Pathfinder 2e primarily since the play test came out (I have a special edition hardcover of it). If you have any questions by all means I'm here! Welcome to Pathfinder!!
It took me so long to try it out! Really, it was kinda hard to justify with how well dnd 5e was going for me but I’m glad I’ve dipped my toes! Thanks for the warm welcome!!
A very common optional rule is the Free Archetype rule. With this you gain an extra feat specifically for taking dedication feats. I usually rule only 1 type can be free. This doesn't add much extra power, mostly this adds flavor and options.
I heard about this while in the editing room with this particular video but thought not to add it since I'd already been working on this for like a month haha!! I'll definitely try to mention it if and when I do a more robust deep dive on the way "multiclassing" works in PF2e.
I've been slowly converting my longrunning 5e's campaign NPCs to Pathfinder 2e, and I had a similar moment of "Oh... we were already homebrewing all this!"
It's been so fun and such a pleasure. Thank you for this great video to help along the way!
Haha it's pretty wild, right? I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the kind words! I'm working on a spellcasting video next and maybe something to cover all of PF2e's conditions after that so there's more to come!
Ditto. It just solves alot of 5e's issues.
Great content! A cool thing that you missed in this video is how spellcasting takes advantage of the 3 action system.
As an example, Heal is a level 1 spell. (cures living creatures/damages undead creatures)
With 1 action it cures/damages 1d8 HP with a touch range
With 2 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP+8 with a range of 30ft
With 3 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP to all living/undead creatures in a 30ft burst.
Additionally, you can cast this spell with a higher level spell slot. For each level increase, add 1d8 to the roll with an additional +8 on the 2 action version.
Thanks for adding this! I wanted to go more in depth on spellcasting in a subsequent video so I didn't load this one down. It's different but not so different that I felt it needed to be covered in a foundational guide like this!
Thank you so much for starting this series. I would love to see more PF2e content from you. If you are to make Class explanation videos, I would love to see what you think of the Alchemist(my fave) and of the Conditions that PF2e has. I am loving the game, though I am still a rookie.
Of course!! Thank you for watching!! I’ll probably post a poll at some point but alchemist should definitely be one of the choices on there since it sounds pretty interesting to me too!
I'm a lifelong RPG player - started with the Basic D&D box set in '82, graduated to AD&D later that year, and playing every iteration since (barring 4th). I've played dozens of TSR, Palladium, & FASA RPGs since then, and got my kids into 5th last year. They, in turn, bought me P2e for Christmas.
The hardest part of the transition isn't the rules, but finding a group of face-to-face players. It seems there's simply no support for connecting players in a local region for in-person games and the Pathfinder Society system is daunting in so many ways.
You raise a very valid concern here and it was the reason I'd never given pathfinder a chance in the past. But I do think you may find more luck in the future. PF2e is growing extremely fast and the community has been very open and welcoming to all the newcomers!
I simply joined a 5e game (found on corkboard at FLGS) and recruited its members into my pathfinder 2e playtest game after getting to know them. We've been playing for four years now, alternating systems.
I was converted to pf2 when it came out, and it was love at first sight. However I wish I would had a informative and well presented introductional video like this when I first flaped my Pathfinding wings. :)
You earned a new subscriber! Thanks for the video :)
Thanks so much for the sub and the accolades!! I felt exactly the same about the lack of guides when I started so I’ve tried to fill that void a bit over the past few years! Happy adventuring and welcome to the chaos!
You're doing Sarenrae's work. Bless you.
Also this briefly hit on something that irritated me since 2e came out.
Hearing about all these house rules for 5e players that sounds like they were ripped directly out of pf2e, but then refusing to just play pf2e just hurt my soul.
when i transferred to pf2e i realized alot of the house rules we were using in 5e were already RAW in pf2e. i also realized a couple of the more recent rules added to 5e were already in pf2e.
Hahaha sorry about that! I may have been one of the main offenders!
Awesome video! I have been GMing Pathfinder 2e for about three years now and haven't looked back at DnD 5e once. It is a system that demands a little bit more of the players BUT makes GMing it a breeze. Gone are the days of constantly having to make up rules while playing and then afterwards trying to remember what rule i made up last time. Almoest everything in Pathfinder is codified in rules and even if you find a fringe case which doesnt have any rules the three action economy makes it easy for the GM to make up a rule that is comparable to other, existant, rules that makes it cost an action or two.
Can't wait for your next Pathfinder related video's! (Maybe something showcasing a beginner friendly class, the sorcerer, thats not just a worse wizard like in dnd and has awesome customisability while being the most magicky magic class)
Thanks so much for the accolades!! I felt the same way about this system when writing up this video--GMing should be a lot easier as it seems to imply a lot more self-policing of the rules and mechanics for players and I love that!
Clean, well illustrated, direct to the point. Good job!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
Starting my group's first session of pf2e, already on it boss.
Hell yeah!! Happy adventuring!
Great first PF2 video! I'm always looking for more PF2 creators, so I'm glad you popped up in my recommendations.
Thanks so much and welcome to the chaos!!
Can't wait to see your next video! I hope you go deeper into Archetypes in a future video, as well as Versatile Heritages such as Tiefling and Half-Orc.
I'm definitely planning to delve deeper into archetypes at some point in the future! It's the main part of the video I felt I couldn't go as deep as I wanted without making it too long.
As a PF2e GM I love this video. Been with 2e since it dropped a few years ago and this video does a wonderful job as a nice crisp primer. One other thing I love of PF2e is archetypes not being just from other classes. Seemingly endless other flavors of tropes and lore stuff all wrapped into other archetypes.
Hey friend! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and found it useful! I really feel PF2e does a lot right that 5e gets wrong so I can't wait to see what they do with the newly announced revised version!
@@ConstructedChaos do you plan to cover it as news come out Chaos?
@@TheRobversion1 probably so!
@@ConstructedChaos cool. BTW shared a pf2e build in your latest pf2e vid that;s reminiscent of your 5e abjurer AOA build.
@@TheRobversion1 Awesome!! I'll have a look!
My group switched to PF2 about 2 years ago, and while I'll always love the game DND, playing a one-shot in 5e as a rogue immediately reminded me why I haven't even thought of going back since. I love the sheer options (which are admittedly overwhelming at first), the tiers of proficiency in... everything, the depth to the tactics of combat, how easy it is to build encounters, and the crit fail/success system.
Most of all though, I love what you can easily create. I've got a former lab rat turned bomb maker, an orc bard who scares enemies with his war drums (and special note, PF2 is the first system I've played where Bards are actually good, and fun to play in combat), a robot who uses his instruction manual to reprogram himself for the day's needs (Tome implement Thaumaturge), and a barbarian who rushes into combat not to inflict massive damage, but to start suplexing and body slamming enemies. I haven't had this much fun creating, evolving, and playing characters since the early days of DND 3rd edition.
The rules and mechanics actually add flavor instead of just limiting what you can and can’t do! I love all of these examples you’ve listed!
Very well done, and very well tuned towards players for a change, bravo!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Exactly the video I needed, and I enjoyed how thorough yet concise your script is. Easiest like and subscribe I've done in a while
Thanks so much! I'm glad you found it helpful and welcome to the chaos!
SKILL CHECKS MATTER! If you can use INTIMIDATION (a Charisma skill) against the opponent's FLAT DC (that is 10+ their bonus) they become FRIGHTENED 1 or on a critical success, FRIGHTENED 2. Why is this powerful, and a great 3rd action option rather than a -10 attack? A frightened opponent loses their Frightened value to their ARMOR CLASS. So they are two easier to hit AND TO CRIT! Skills are free things you can do with your third action that benefit both YOU and YOUR PARTY. Welcome to the chewy side of Fantasy Role Playing. Where teamwork and tactics matter!
Hell yeah! I’m here for the crunch!
@@kevingross4141 woah just learning pf and that is so awesome!?!?
Your channel has been consistently producing great content. I hope you have everyone who ever rolled a d20 subscribing.
Thanks so much!! I hope so too! haha
When it comes to character creations, in D&D you build your character around your stats where in Pathfinder you build your stats around your character.
That's an excellent way to put it!
Thank you so much for this video! The party I’m in has been playing a campaign for 3 years now in DnD 5e, but we will all also be playing the next installment of our DM’s world’s story in a new campaign. For this subsequent campaign our DM has decided to switch us to PF 2e, so I’m working on learning the system. This video is getting sent straight to the group chat for its succinctness, enthusiasm, clarity, and broad coverage. Will be checking out more on your channel :)
@@dasaf.2382 thanks so much!! I’m glad you found it useful and happy adventuring!!
Great video, I'm looking into PF2e and so far I'm loving all of it. Really hoping you make more videos like this one, I'm looking forward to making my very first PF2e character after getting to know as many options available as possible!
Thanks so much, Raul! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I definitely intent to put out some more PF2e content very soon! Probably going to start with some class guides!
just finished making mine in prep for my 1st session this weekend. made my take of an "optimized" ranger coming from my time in 5e. of course pf2e is different but i'm curious how my "5e optimization training" translates well in pf2e.
It makes sense to cover the core rulebook classes first but Oracle and Thaumaturge are awesome. I'm looking forward to your next video! SUBSCRIBED!
I agree, Oracles were one of my favorite classes in PF1 and seem to have made the transition to 2e much better than some of my other faves (such as Barbarian and Alchemist); and Thaumaturges are just flat out one of the most unique and flavorful classes in all editions of DnD/PF combined, while still being one of the best narrative and aesthetic fits for most standard settings.
Hell yeah! Welcome to the chaos, friend! I'll have a look at both of those soon--though I have heard that the Oracle is pretty complex. I may save that one for a later video as I get more cozy within the mechanics of PF2e.
Wow. I watched a few videos to understand the fundamental differences of DND 5E and PF2e and this video was the best narrated and structured of all. 20 minutes staying on topic, good visualizations and interesting narrated.
I would like to watch more PF2e stuff from you!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'll definitely be putting out more like this soon!!
I have already made the transition but I wanted to watch this video anyways. I am glad to see the positive energy has returned to your videos.
Thanks so much! All that OGL crud couldn't keep me down for long. I said what I had to say and it seems like the internet is ready to consume regular TTRPG content again and that makes me so happy haha.
If you are doing Class videos Barbarian would be a good starting point.
Easy to show how a 5e Barbarian is the same as any other 5e Barbarian with the subclass only adding a tiny bit of flavour , while PF2 Barbarians can be very diverse, even at level 1
Hell yeah! Someone else suggested the barb and I actually still have to make a barb guide for 5e as well. So, maybe I can make them at the same time and sortof cross-reference things within the videos!
Excellent video. One addendum: it is easy to heal up with Treat Wounds (medicine checks when you have training and tools) out of combat. So even though sleeping doesn't restore all HP like in 5e, you can heal people to full HP over the course of several hours if you are trained in medicine. Or have magic healing.
Thanks for that added context! Good to know!
While nat 1 put your result one degree down, nat 20 raises it one degree up, so crit fail to just fail, fail to succses and succses to crit succses.
Oh wow! Thank you so much for pointing this out! It, I’d course follows that this would be the case and I knew that but I can’t believe I forgot to mention it specifically! I’ll pin your comment so no one is confused on this!
@@ConstructedChaos oh, thank you! I understand why you could forget to mention it, cause nat 20 is rarely something else but crit success, let alone failure or crit failure.
Absolutely love Pathfinder 2e. It’s a bit of a rough transition for at least one of my players since they still can’t stomach the fact that the average chance to hit/beat dc of monsters is usually a 50-60% chance if you don’t set up for flanks, apply buffs or debuffs. I don’t want to deprive them of enjoyment, but at the same time my other players adore the versatility and team emphasis on the new system, which makes it challenging to go back. Perhaps some of this will be mitigated once they reach second level and have more spells and abilities to make rolls easier, but I’m worried next session will set him off (we’re doing the beginner box and the next session will have a kobold with 18 AC).
I’m sure some of the learning curve will come in the form of understanding that team emphasis the more they play in the system! Maybe try mentioning that fact to them so they know to be aware of it! I know I was unaware of that necessary focus until I started really researching and deep diving for this video!
This sounds like one player is a square peg being forced into a round hole. Sweet Jebus, let that player find a game he/she enjoys. Not everyone likes PF2E - my 5e game has PF2E refugees. The player traffic moves in both directions.
@@simonfernandes6809
Not everyone loves something automatically. It can take time. Going on 13 years ago when me and my group were still playing 3.5 we heard of Pathfinder 1e. When we first looked over the Core Rule Book we didn't like many of the changes, but liked others. Maybe 6 months later we gave Pathfinder 1e a try and never looked. Change can't be disheartening.
@@sacredbeastzenon You need to listen to what you are saying: 'Not everyone loves something automatically.' Square peg. Round hole. If they don't enjoy the game, don't force them. Not everyone likes what you like.
@@simonfernandes6809 So if one out of four players has a problem with an aspect of a system you should do what exactly? Play another system just for their sake? Kick them from the group? I have a hard time understanding what you’re really saying the OP should do.
Great video man! Wonderfull overview of the basics of the game. Thanks for making it, I'm looking forward to more.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Our group finished the beginner box and it was fantastic
Nice!! I'm glad y'all enjoyed it! I definitely want to get my regular play group into a game or two soon!
Great video. Never played D&D 5e, but I'm always curious of the perspectives of those coming to Pf2e from it. (3 years into GM'ing Pf2e)
Thanks so much! Good to hear from a PF2e veteran that the video satisfied the needs of new players!
I was actually moving to PF2E before all the OGL nonsense started, but I'm still learning. The Exploration Modes and healing/dying stuff is what I'm going to be focusing on learning better next.
Good on ya! I've heard a lot of people having the most trouble with the dying mechanics but I think it's pretty easy to remember once it clicks. Happy adventuring!
I try not to be that guy but I am always SO happy when someone tries a new system. I'm never get into someone's mentions when they complain about DnD, but every time someone complains about DnD not being good at a specific thing that Pathfinder is good at I REALLY want to let them know as much as I know they're not going to take that advice.
Thank you for the great video! I wanted to learn and play PF2e but was kinda lost in it. Please, keep going.
Thank you for watching! I'm happy this helped and you can expect more pathfinder content (alongside the dnd stuff) in the future!
i love this! Pathfinder needs more creators
Thanks so much! Happy to be counted in that number!
Welp time to subscribe! Welcome! I love supporting pf2e creators c:
Yay!! Thank you! And welcome to the chaos! :)
Nice video, thanks for sharing. 5e refugee here, coming on over to PF2!
nice! ditto! recent exile here and definitely enjoying the new system which is more defined and structured. less DM fiat/"mother may i." playing in my 1st campaign as a ranger with a sorc archetype.
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you found it helpful and I'm happy to oblige!
I really enjoy Pathfinder 2e. There is so much you can do to customize your character. Many variant rules can allow you further customization with the Gm's permission.
The one thing we do at my table is Roll for Hit Points rather than take the maximum.
I do miss the rolling aspect of 5e's stats and hp calculations. It pleased my inner dice goblin haha.
I think for class comparison, it may make sense to start with martials and within that scope with fighters so you have a good point of reference in terms of their abilities and damage output comparatively.
Fair enough! I was definitely considering this since someone else had suggested fighter might be the way to go!
Really enjoyed this one. Would love to see more pathfinder videos
Roger that!! I definitely need to revisit some things now that they released the revised version!
Great video! Really well constructed argument for why pathfinder is such a great system, even more so now with the remaster. Thanks for making it!
It should be noted that it's not an 'optional rule' to pick +2 to two stats instead of the default option, it's a core rule that you can pick between either.
Optional rules are things GMs need to ok, like stamina or bonus archetype.
Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough!
@@ConstructedChaos it wasn't in the initial release of the CRB, but instead it was errata'd in retroactively.
This is the best video explaining how Pathfinder2e works, great job!!
Thanks so much!! I'm glad you found it helpful!
Great summary, although Pathfinder does have short rests in a way.
Medicine skill does a lot of healing, and you're pretty much expected to heal to full after each combat and there's a plethora of magical and non magical healing available. Health is not a daily resource but a in combat resource.
Right right. Short rests don’t really exist as they do in dnd 5e. Take special note of my wording here. I didn’t want to burden this video with semantics but I’m sure I’ll be able to cover what you’re talking about as I begin to cover classes and what resources of theirs come back after a “short time” haha.
As for the healing, for sure, there is healing available! But, I don’t think my points are invalid with that in mind. Again, this is a topic I’m sure I can deep dive in another video. But, the dying/wounded system of PF2e is still much more threatening than making death saves in DND 5e regardless!
2:45 - It's actually not an optional rule to select any two ability scores for +2. It's an Alternative Option. That's not just semantics in PF2E. An Optional Rule is one you need to beg your GM to use. An Alternative Option is an official rule that means by default you can choose between it an the 'other' alternative(s). As in: Not using it is a GM Homebrew. This matters when approaching tables. The end result is the same: the GM could say no, but then they're making a house rule. So most GMs are more likely to 'go with the flow' for Alternatives. Also if a player is getting involved in "Pathfinder Society Games" the difference really matters as house rules are out but Alternative Options are in.
"beg" lol, speak for yourself there.
Yep! Someone pointed this out to me the other day and I pinned their comment! Still, good looking out, friend!
My DM is slowly switching over to Pathfinder via switching out mechanics here and there and this video helped a lot. I'm just not sure where I can access info on how to make characters and learn the basic rules like I can with DND 5e where there's already a website dedicated to making characters and synthesizing source material. Thanks for the informative video!
I think that there’s something in the works to that end but hopefully this video series can serve as a good substitute until then! Thanks for watching and I’m glad that it seemed to have helped!! Happy adventuring!
@treythomas9119 try Pathbuilder and Archives of Nethys!
the entire ruleset is available for free on Archives of Nethys (and fully legally). popular character builder are pathbuilder2e and wanderer's guide, where pathbuilder loads better whilst wanderer's has more guidance. the people who initially made dndbeyand actually made pathfinder nexus, where they are working on a character builder, though currently they just have all the books with pdfs optimized for digital screens.
You should check out Archives of Nethys for the rules, and pathbuilder for a character builder.
That's been around. If you just want stat blocks for monsters, descriptions for items, and class overviews, go to Archives Of Nethys. If you want to be able to build a character, use Pathbuilder 2e. I'm sure there's a different service out there, and I'm sure plenty of people in the PF2e community have some form of gripe with how Pathbuilder 2e works, but it still works all the same.
Great video. Sounds like the whole dying/wounded mechanic could use it's own video. Going to watch that section again, but I was definitely rocking the the 'huh' expression after that section.
Thanks so much! And, yeah, haha. I had to read over it a few times to make sure I understood but the concept itself isn't too hard to remember once you grasp it and I think it makes for some really interesting combats when you have a dying party member on the battlefield!
Thank you for this! I just shared 8t with my players. We'll be switching to pf2 soon
Happy that you found it useful! Happy adventuring!
Thanks for your contribution to this content. We also migrated from 5e to P2e. Personally, I love it!
Happy to be a part of the community and I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it!!
Me who abandoned 5e for Dungeon World, 13th Age, and Torchbearer 2 years ago: Interesting 🧐
Glad you’re trying new stuff! Welcome to the other side!
Haha thanks for the warm welcome!
I felt everything was right on point. I just bought the 2.E pathfinder book and starter box last week. And I feel like easier to grasp and more content
Thanks! I think it can feel intimidating to some but hopefully this video showcases how simple it really is!
I am using this format for upcoming TTG play for podcast I am working on!
@@thedadgamer2315 Oh awesome!! Please share that with me when it releases! I'd love to check it out!
Really impressed with the flexibility and options. Seems like a lot of thought has gone into making all these classes fun. Looking forward to trying this out sometime.
Do you have any affiliate links if I wanted to grab any Pathfinder products so it kicks a few bucks your way?
Seb, you are seriously too kind!! I don't have affiliate links for the PF2e books yet (as I like to encourage support of local game stores instead of amazon) but I think a lot of places are out of stock anyway right now so maybe I should consider that haha.
I moved from D&D5e to PF2 about a year ago, and I absolutely love it. The system mechanics allow for better storytelling: in 5e, a level 17 character has 4 more points of proficiency than a level 1 character. But in PF2, the level 17 likely has a proficiency of 25, without gear or feat bonuses: the characters MECHANICALLY get better, showing the real progress they gain for adventuring.
The treat wounds vs short rest difference in the systems feels like it largely depends on the context of the adventure too. If the party has no current time constraints, nothing seems to really stop them from spending 5 hours to treat wounds over and over until they're back to full HP. On the other hand, if there is time pressure then they have to make the call to press on or not. It feels really context dependant.
That's a fair point but I do feel as though most campaigns and sessions include at least some sense of urgency that prevents such long recovery periods during a given arc.
Excellent vid. I'm learning alot and yes we as a table have taken a break from dnd (and ttrpgs in general) but we've all agreed that this "downtime" is to be spent learning PF2E both as a player and eventually as a DM. so most definitely i'm all in on more vids like this to learn the game. i don't foresee myself returning to 5E for some time. i'd rather learn PF2E or play video games i've had on my docket for awhile.
some things i liked and didn't liked:
1. some of the systems like dying sounds a bit ore complicated. i prefer the simplicity of 5e in this case. however, it seems to me that a dedicated healer (and avoiding combat encounters) is more viable in PF2E than in 5e. i could be wrong though.
2. i like that the system seems similar to dnd 3.5 where i used to optimize and build theorycraft as well. excited to hear your take on the classes. perhaps eventually a step by step build a character video as well like with one of those apps like pathbuilder?
3. i like how ancestry (race) is handled here and how class progression doesnt provide dead levels (which discourages multiclassing). i do love multiclassing though so i'm happy there's still some form of it here by picking up the dedication stuff. but just to make sure i'm understanding it correctly, there's no alchemist champion here in the "5e sense" right?
4. i liked the feat variety and weapon traits as it helps characters feel more unique but imo the number of conditions can be simplified and trimmed down. 40 is a bit much.
5. i liked how criticals work and it does encourage stacking numbers. i like numbers. :)
Haha thanks as always, Rob! I like numbers too--but maybe not as much as you do! Seems like you're enjoying your PF2e adventures as well so I'm looking forward to learning alongside ya!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah also nice to learn new world lore along with the mechanics of PCs. i like how the rules are more defined in pf2e (except for recall knowledge).
This was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!!
You're welcome! Hope you enjoy it!
Note: you can take as many free actions as you want, so long as their triggers or prerequisites are met. Also, treat wounds is so effective, especially at lower levels, and so available that every party will have at least one non-magic healer. Plus the encounter design mechanics would really like you to be at full hitpoints.
Well said! Good points here!
I think it is worth noting that the short rest is not dead, it just looks different. You have these exploration activities you can do, that takes 10 minutes. If you have training in the medicine skill, you can patch up the wounded, you can try that once per hour per person, so if it is light wounds, you might do it just once in 10 minutes, and short rest over. But if the wounds are more severe, you might want to wait that hour to do it again before you continue on your adventure. Similarly a lot of classes gets focus points they can use on certain spells, these focus points also recover at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes, when the character is doing something class appropriate (the cleric prays for the party, the bard sings, etc. it is left purposefully vague so you can decide what refocuses your character). So yes, there is no official mechanic called a short rest. But a party will frequently want to take 10 minutes after a fight for focus points and healing, and maybe several hours if you need multiple medicine checks to bring someone to full hit points.
Typically with the medicine skill, and some healing abilities that only require these focus points that come back after 10 minutes, most people are actually full health by the time they go to bed.
Out of combat healing is quite readily available, which is on purpose, that means most of the time, you have full health when you enter a combat. That is one of several reasons the encounter building system in PF2e is much better at predicting how hard a fight will be.
That's a totally fair observation! Thanks for that correction!
That was quite awesome. As someone who started out hoarding 3rd edition, Pathfinder 2e shouldn't be too hard. I mostly just am overwhelmed by the history of new settings like Golarion.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And you should definitely have an easy time with the transition to PF2. That said, I'm not familiar at all with the lore and settings yet so you might know better than I would!
13:20 slight correction. There is no direct limit on how many free actions you can use. Assuming they are applicable you can use them whenever and however many times you want
Is there not? Thanks for clarifying if so!
The only limitation I know of is that you can only have one action trigger per thing that happens for each character. You can’t use two free actions when say an enemy leaves your threat range unless stated otherwise
Hell yeah. Im hoping that more people try playing pathfinder, I am a DnD hater so when newbies understand how great PF 2-e is it brings a smile to my face.
This was an amazing way to help players! Could you provide a similar aid to GM's? I've been running 5e for 9 years because it's simple and translatabe, but always leaving me wanting something else from it. I love the idea of P2e but a little lost on how to get started running the game :)
That's a great suggestion! I'll try to put something together sometime in the future--especially now that PF2e's revised version is out. What sort of thing would you like to see covered in a video like that?
@ConstructedChaos stuff like an in depth look at the balance system / guide to running monsters and each action anyone can take in combat (5e has dodge, dash, shoves&grapple attack, use object or magic item, ect.) how skills are run differently, and other constants of the game for the GM to keep track of (like in 5e there is passive perception and spell save DC, exhaustion, ect.)
TL;DR
What the GM needs to do in a given session before and during the game
As a DM, I cannot stress enough just how better combat is in PF2e.
In 5e, I have to constantly pull punches, pretend monsters are dumb, or be sad because the 2 claws and a bite meme has affected 3 combats now.
in PF2e, I get to play without pulling any punches because the MATH is much tighter, the actions are wildly more varied and NPCs can act like PCs in all regards. They dont need special things to be able to grab or demoralize in their stat blocks like 5e does. The Encounter difficult ratings MEAN something and I can 100% rely on a severe encounter being severe, a low encounter being low.
Above all else, I get to play as smart as I can for the NPCs. There is no fumbling rolls pretending a hit is a miss because it would absolutely nuke the battle now or kill a player because of bad math.
I have campaigned Strahd, Phandelver, Descent into Avernus for 5e and I did not have as much fun as I do now in PF2e adventures that are written more concisely and better organized in every possible way. WOTC DOESNT SELL COMPLETE PRODUCTS.
Well said! At the very least, I may start slowly incorporating rules from PF2e into my 5e games in the hopes that I can get the players to transition over fully!
If you kill a player something went horribly wrong at your table. Killing a character, now that's much different.
If d&d had 3 action rule. I would never switch to PF. Except some final corpo overriding bullshait. Then Im done.
@@odinulveson9101 It's the 3 action economy and the crit rules for me. Though, it's easy enough to home-brew those crit rules into 5e :D
@@ConstructedChaos same for me.
I'm debating whether it's easier to homebrew both for 5e and do the work myself.
Or if I can get my players to learn a new system.
I started with D&D 3.5 so all of the pathfinder mechanics are awesome in my book, plus some of the grievances I had with 3.5 have been addressed in PF2E so looking forward to GMing my first table since 3.5 because I had to take a step back from ttrpg because of work and a few medical issues, but I am back in it and to tell you the truth I played some 5E and missed many of the 3.5 rules.
nice! i started dnd with 3.5e myself and definitely missed certain stuff there like how they handled psions compared to 4/5E. i haven't checked out the psychic yet but i'm glad to have made the switch from 5e to pf2e recently as alot of of my grievances of 5e are handled better in pf2e. plus pf2e resources are so accessible!
I began with 5e but I'd always wanted to try 3.5e. It seemed like the most popular edition besides. And, now it makes sense to me why 5e saw such mass adoption but 3.5 is still hailed by many hardcore fans as being the best.
@@ConstructedChaos my take is that 3.5E appealed to the gamer. 5E tried to appeal more to the casual/newbie while trying to balance not to lose the hardcore gamer customer base. can't blame wotc for this approach though because at the end of the day it's about making the most amount of money for them. not necessarily putting out the best product.
a balance can eventually be struck imo but not with their current leadership of money-hungry executives who don't really care for nor are passionate for the game.
@@TheRobversion1 you hit the nail on the head!
@@TheRobversion1 I think that's a great assessment. I'll hold out hope for the future but I'll be happy enough with anything that gets more people into the hobby--even if that means I move to PF2e permanently.
Thank you for the Pathfinder video. I'm interested in a lot of systems, so variety (not just D&D) is good for me.
Awesome!! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll be continuing a deep dive on PF2e but I'll probably also cover some other systems at some point too!
Love the idea of hero points, it gives you player Caracter a chance to pull of a crazy anime scene without being too op, like imagine your Caracter is about to die, you have hero points, and you explain how somehow by either intervention from the gods, or an internal will. you refuse to die, you will succeed in your cause and you will fight
You could have the villain say something to light a fire in the hero, or have the hero replace on all that they would lose if they were to die in that moment, and get that sudden inner strength to keep going,
That's one of my favorite parts of anime is when the hero is almost about to give up but gets that second wind, and the fact that pathfinder lets you create those story's, say those inner monologues to your friends and hype up the rest of the table, that made me pick up this game yesterday,
(i know you could add that rule into D&D but i just don't like the company)
Great video, if I were still playing D&D I would definitely try to make the switch. Although, I don't think most of the players in my area would.
My regular play group has been pretty receptive towards switching if I decide we should! However, DND is still the larger TTRPG so that's what we're playing for now.
you could check online westmarch servers like the new dawn coalition or the forged concordance.
The roll on a 20 still hype’s my players.
And it should! I actually forgot to mention that a nat 20 does still raise the level of success on a saving throw just like a nat 1 lowers it!
Thank you for the great guide!
Of course! Happy to oblige!
Cool! Can hardly wait to start Pathfinder 2e.
Hell yeah! Welcome to the other side!
its awesome! i'm in my 1st campaign now and playing a ranger with a druid archetype.
God please keep making more videos i can't keep track of everything in that book
Hahaha understandable--it is over 600 pages after all! I'll probably move to create some class guides next and maybe some videos that cover differences in spellcasting rules and other mechanics!
This is really good video, one of the better ones I've seen on the subject, and I've been watching quite a few. But I always feel like an idiot when I hear so many people talk about PF2's "perceived complexity" because it really seems like that perception is reality. That said, I'm also an idiot, so that may be where the feeling comes from.
For all the amazing things that I'm looking forward to when I start running a game like the action economy, the crit system, the character customization, etc, it's still really difficult not to become overwhelmed by the idea of knowing dozens and dozens of Encounter Actions, Skill Actions, Conditions, the differences in the states of detection like Undetected and Unnoticed. It's very overwhelming.
Videos like this are helpful, so thanks. I'll definitely be looking for more.
feel free to ask questions here. As a fellow 5e immigrant, i'm enjoying learning the pf2e rules and would be nice to get more pf2e discussion going on in this channel.
Haha you're not an idiot! I had to read a few rules over and over to get them into my own thick skull bc reading comprehension is hard. But, thinking back, it took me a while to fully grasp 5e rules when I first started my TTRPG adventures!
@TheRobversion1 @@ConstructedChaos I think a big source of the complexity is the rigidity of the system. In 5e, the rules were basically, "Take what your players want to do, find an applicable skill, set a DC, and ask for a roll." Simple. Too simple to be honest; simple to a fault. It seems like Pathfinder overcorrects this problem. With PF, I'm worried that when a player tells you what they want to do, it's going to require a lot of back and forth to the book to look at the list of like 3-dozen Skill Actions to see if what they're referring to is already laid out in the rules.
Then, with each of those actions having like 2 or 3 "tags" associated with it and having to check to see if any of the 40-some conditions affect actions with those tags... it just seems like it'll take a lot of referencing.
Admittedly, we don't start our game until next week, so perhaps in practice it'll play better than it reads. But even though it's an in-person game, I'm still running it in Foundry VTT, cuz it's an awful lot to wrap my head around.
@@nextlevel8822 I do think the system lends itself better to TTRPG veterans. A lot of the mechanics make sense enough that you can reasonably infer them 90% of the time but, for a new player with not much TTRPG experience, I can see how the practice of truly knowing how your character works could be overwhelming and not fully understood.
That's to say that I mostly agree with the points you raise here! I just think it'll get easier as you play with the system!
Welcome to the Math side of things. I love Pathfinder and I'm glad more people are wanting to try it out. If you ever have any questions or need some character artwork let me know. I'm going to be working on the Galoma tokens next week.
Thanks so much! The grass is truly greener on the other side haha. And I appreciate the offer! I'll keep you in mind if the need arises!
very good explanation of the mechanics
Thanks so much!
Glad I found your channel
I'm glad you found it too! Thanks for watching! :)
Athletics is a very useful skill, as it is used for a lot of combat tricks, such as tripping, grabbing fo a grapple, and disarming. These can be very useful as they put different conditions on an opponent, depending upon your level of success.
Absolutely athletics shouldn't be slept on--even if it is the only skill that falls under the strength ability!
Hey Chaos. Happy weekend! here's your GM question of the week:
A little context 1st. my GM and i got into an argument this weekend on the rules of invisibility. basically, i have a leather armor that allows me to activate invisibility as a 2nd level spell (the invisibility breaks when you directly or indirectly cause harm). so in a tough fight with all my allies plus my pet wolf down and with me left standing (i'm a ranger if you remember so i'm in the back) when it got to my turn what i did was turn invisible. while the enemy was gloating, taunting and seeking to find me, i told my GM i'd be striding over to a downed ally and using battle medicine to pop them back up while telling them telepathically not to stand up until i give the signal (our bard has telepathy running).
he said "ok after you heal him, your invisibility breaks." i ask why? i'm not directly causing harm to an enemy. he said yes but i'm indirectly causing harm by reviving my allies who could harm our enemies and thus would break invisibility RAW. i disagreed. my take on this if i were GMing is that an effect/spell must have the enemy as one of it's targets and then harm them directly or indirectly to break invisibility. imo, if i target my allies or myself with buff spells like haste or heal them, even if doing so helps them harm our enemies it shouldn't break invisibility. in the same vein, i don't think summoning breaks invisibility either nor does conjuring a hazard like entangle if an enemy isn't in the AOE. imo the way my GM was ruling it is that any "combat spell" in pf2e would break invisibility and thus the make the spell useless in combat unless a player uses the level 4 version.
how would you rule this?
Hmmm healing with invisibility is definitely a weird grey area. Hostile actions in the core rulebook are defined as "A hostile action is one that can harm or damage another creature, whether directly or indirectly, but not one that a creature is unaware could cause harm." So it's a bit of a stretch but I can see where your GM is coming from.
It seems like this is maybe one of the few open-ended rules in Pathfinder 2e. Personally, I'd see this and feel it could be taken advantage of. I kinda feel like 5e actually handles this better but I think I would have allowed you to do what you were doing. I would not allow conjuring something like entangle even if an enemy isn't in the AOE because your intent would likely be to cause harm to them indirectly.
@@ConstructedChaos yeah i think paizo could've done a better job with this in defining what's hostile and what's indirect harm. personally, i limited it to targets as qualifiers as this eliminates the vagueness of what's indirect/hostile as arguments can be valid for both sides and the argument would never end "satisfactorily."
with a qualifier such as "targets", imo, it's clear if something is hostile or not (the act of targeting the enemy is hostile). for clarity for indirect, i'd add that perhaps you aimed a spell with splash dmg at an object. the enemy isn't the main target but get hits with the splash dmg. i'd consider that indirect harm.
to further add on what's qualified and direct, i focused on the words "ACTION that can harm or dmg another CREATURE." so imo the action that you take, whether its an ability or a spell, if it doesn't cause dmg or harm to another creature on the turn you executed it is consider non-hostile. if its causes harm/dmg to another creature on the turn you executed it then i consider it hostile.
for example, healing an ally. it doesnt cause dmg or harm. if that ally, just doesn't harm another creature for the rest of the fight, retaining the invisibility becomes valid then if the ally attacks it becomes invalid according to the GM. I eliminate this "future potential" from my own reading of the rules. i focus on whether the action causes harm/dmg now, not factoring it what other sets of actions can be done in the future to cause it.
like if i haste someone, and they dont attack anyone anymore then the act of hasting isn't really hostile. or if i summon a creature and i don't command it to attack an enemy. or with the entangle example, if an enemy isn't in that area, they arent harmed. they are only possibly harmed if they choose to enter the entangled area or if someone shoves them there (again potential future actions). if the enemies decide not to cross the entangled area and pelt us with ranged attacks/spells, the act of casting entangle was simply a distraction/wasted spell which wasn't harmful.
anyway i hope you got my point there about potential harm (this is where my GM stands and i think where you stand as well) vs. actual/already happening harm (this is where i am).
do you have any other thoughts or edge-cases for this?
@@TheRobversion1 Oh I definitely get where you're coming from here and I do totally agree that Paizo should have been clearer on things. As it is, I think the interpretation is left up to the DM but, oddly enough, I prefer how 5e handles this. I worry that allowing invisible creatures to just perform any action outside of an attack without breaking the invisibility makes it a lot more powerful. I'd probably home-brew that actions outside of interacting with an object, picking a pocket, etc. would drop your invisibility.
@@ConstructedChaos on this aspect yes i prefer 5e's take on it too.
actually it's not just an attack that breaks it. anything that causes harm/dmg. a trip breaks it. intimidating breaks it. any spell that targets the enemy for dmg or a condition breaks it. there's still many that break it.
personally, if i was playing at your table and those are the only acceptable actions, i'd just not bother to use invisibility ever. it becomes a useless spell. why? because stealth does all of these things already without resource expenditure or needing to get a caster dedication/magic items. skill/ancestry feats like legendary sneak, very, very sneaky and ceaseless shadows exist which also take stealth up another level.
i do agree though that there could be more restrictions but there has to be a balance wherein actually using a spell is better than using stealth but not as powerful as higher levelled spells like mislead or 4th level invisibility. or perhaps just make invisibility a 3rd level spell to begin with.
@@TheRobversion1 Hmmm you make a sound argument for invisibility being underpowered in the current 5e meta and, while I'm not sure I agree, I can see what you're saying and I do think that it should either become a higher level spell with more use case. Really, the actions it can perform just need to be better spelled out.
I loved it! Thank you so much!
Thank YOU! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
this is such a well produced video and i loved it. but one thing i think should be mentioned is the mindset is completeley different. there is way more emphasis on team work that you just dont see in 5e. this is because of the buffs and debuffs that happen during combat. trying to get your barbarian that crit by reducing that +10 threshold to crit and seeing that they are coming up in the turn order really changes the game. this is the same for casters and thats why people say they are nerfed but dont understand that they are more team players than individual burst novas. i think this should be reallllly stressed when coming into this system.
Thanks so much for the accolades! I did touch on this point very briefly a couple of times but I didn't want to dwell on it too long since the video was already approaching the 30min mark. I'll be sure to make an "advanced combat guide" at some point in the future as well as other companion videos like "advanced spellcasting". This one was just to get the foundation laid and the ball rolling!
Yes bro please more PathFinder content
Your wish is my command! I have a DND guide coming on Monday or Tuesday and then I'm jumping back into Pathfinder next!
@@ConstructedChaos looking forward to it!!!!
If you do end up doing PF2 class overviews, I think the Ranger is a good one to start, considering how underwhelming they are in DnD5 and how PF2 actually does them justice.
The ranger has gotten a lot better in 5e since Tasha's came out. But, it's one of my favorite classes conceptually so I wouldn't mind starting there with PF2e!
Hey nice video. Thaumaturge is quite interesting. Barbarian is different from 5e in its way to dish out damage. I'd start with one of these ;)
Ohhh that gives me a thought! Maybe I can do two barbarian guides--one for dnd and one for pathfinder and make a few comparisons here and there! Thanks for the suggestions!
@@ConstructedChaos It would be great to show how two 1st level Human Barbarians in PF2 could be very different while two 1st level Human Barbarians in 5e would be exactly the same
Great video, very clear presentation
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I am learning PF2e to DM for my friends. The more I learn about the system the more I'm loving it. The balancing is sooo much better. Character creation with the heritages and backgrounds really helps create some depth to who the character is. Even for people who don't normally create a backstory. The Rune system for magic items is fantastic and allows you to use your great great grandpa's sword through the entire campaign without falling behind. Also, Paizo (PF2e publisher) supports Archives of Nethys and shown that they care about the community by their stance they took when WOTC tried pulling their BS.
Also, one tip for character creation. For some reason its not called out real well. But your character gets 4 free ability boosts during creation. It's outlined in step 6 of the character creation process in the core rulebook and can be easy to overlook.
Just one correction on the healing part. Actually healing in Pathfinder is free. As you can threat wounds once every hour, for a substatial healing. So you gain few hit points from only resting, but you can threat wound before you go to sleep and when you wake up. So you are expected to be always at close to max HP in encounters.
Well you need healers tools and there is still a medicine check involved. Definitely not quite as easy as it is in DND.
I’m subscribing in the hopes there will be more Pathfinder 2e content. I just picked up the players guide after the WOTC debacle and comments from Kyle Brink and I’m excited to learn the system so I can run it at my table.
Thanks and welcome to the chaos!! There will definitely be more pathfinder down as we go but I'll probably continue to publish DND-related material as well. WOTC opened the door for me to explore other TTRPGs. I'm hoping they don't push me away from DND entirely in the future but who knows?
Since you asked. I would like to see direct class conversions, specifically classes and subclasses 2e doesn't have like warlock and eldritch knight. I would recommend new converted campaigns use the free archtype variant rule.
Any advice on imitating the subclasses with archtypes would be very helpful.
I need to help my eldritch knight player recreate his concept.
I'm converting my DnD5e campaign to PF2e. This vid is right on the mark for me. I'll put my time where my mouth is and sub to this channel.
Eldritch knight can be made through either the magus or the thaumaturge depending on what you prefer. As for the warlock that would probably be a witch or thaumaturge depending how you play them
@@themoistcrusader3262 I'm looking at Magus archtype now. Thanks.
Thanks so much for watching and welcome to the chaos!! Seeing as how well this video did as a light comparison between 5e and PF2e, I wouldn't be opposed to continuing this series in that same light! Thanks for the suggestion!
The interesting thing with pf2 monsters is how they make you think. Often a hard to hit monster can be trounced by save spells and SKILLS either doing direct damage or debuffing it into something manageable.
Absolutely! It feels more tactical then just trying to do damage over and over again!
For classes, how about going over Rogue, Sorcerer, Thaumaturge and Swashbuckler.
I'll probably try to cover the base classes (for the most part) starting out. But the thaumaturge is definitely one that I've seen a lot of people suggesting so I'm sure it won't be long before I get there!
Oh I'm definitely down for more Pathfinder 2e content.
Well, good news! I definitely plan to make more!! Be on the lookout for my first class guide within the next month or so!
@@ConstructedChaos I really appreciate it! I've already sent your vid to a few of my friends who play 5e because out of the various guides I've seen it was easily one of the best at translating the real differences. Very happy to subscribe and looking forward to more of your content in whatever form it takes!
@@chavesa5 Wow!! Thank you so much for sharing it around! I'm so glad it's proving useful to you and your friends!!
ditto. voraciously learning the game in preparation for our 1st session this coming weekend.
@@TheRobversion1 remember your Hero Points and that Crit successes and fails are +/- 10 to the DC of the check, respectively. DC is easy to calculate if you are in a pinch-- relevant stat + 10. And remember your skill actions like Tumble Through and Feint.
Best of luck!