Five Things To Know When Starting Pathfinder 2nd Edition
If you, like many people, are making a Pathfinder 2E character for the first time, here are a few handy things you’ll want to keep in mind.
Pathfinder 2nd Edition might have come from the same RPG lineage as 5th Edition D&D, but it’s come a long way since its early roots. But it’s diverged along a much different path from 5th Edition.
Where 5th Edition D&D is all about streamlined rules. And bounded accuracies. Pathfinder 2E focuses on customization, builds, combos, and characters that can do all sorts of crazy things. If they can manage the bonuses to their rolls for it.
So for all you new Pathfinders out there, scratching your heads as you look at Ancestry Feats, Skill Feats, and Class Feats, we’re here to help. Here are five things to keep in mind when starting Pathfinder 2nd Edition.
You Get Three Actions, Yes, But They Should Probably All Be Different
One of the biggest, most immediate changes to Pathfinder 2nd Edition is that every character gets multiple actions, eight o’clock, day one. To the point, each character gets three actions every turn. This sounds exciting because any character can attack three times! Even your Barbarian with a greataxe!
Except multiple attacks come at a pretty steep penalty unless you figure out how to specialize. 3rd Edition D&Ders will be familiar with this. Your second attack in a round takes a -5 penalty, and your third (and every subsequent attack) takes a whopping -10 penalty.
Certain things can mitigate this a little. Agile weapons and feats can reduce your multiple-attack penalty. Some feats might let you make two attacks and then start taking your penalty afterward.
But by and large, look at what else you can do with your actions besides just attack. Because if you want to succeed, diversity is the name of the game.
Remember Your Skill Feats
Pathfinder is absolutely the kind of game that requires you to remember a ton of little details. Or at least to create a system to help you remember them. Pathfinder 2E character apps like Pathbuilder are a great way to collate everything.
But if you’re approaching it manually, we suggest writing your Skill Feats down and highlighting them, somehow.
Because they often just let you do what you think you might already be able to. For instance, Intimidating Glare is a skill feat that lets you intimidate someone with merely a glance. Meaning all you have to do is look at them, so you don’t take a penalty for not sharing a language with your target.
Eye For Numbers, meanwhile, is a skill feat that lets you approximately guess how many things there are in one area. So if you need to count jellybeans in a jar, you’ll want to remember you can.
Not Everything is Worth Grabbing Right Off the Bat
Pathfinder 2nd Edition is a game with a lot of options. And many of them pale in comparison to more practical, mechanics-focused options. For instance, you might take the Approximate spell, which is a cantrip that lets you quickly guess that “there are roughly thirty vials on a shelf.”
Or you could take the Inside Ropes spell, a cantrip that lets you pull a large handful of guts from your midsection to use as a rope to climb well.
Both are cantrips. But it’s often worth checking to see if you need something right away. It depends on how often you hope to climb or guess at vial numbers.
Plan Ahead
In Pathfinder 2E, your character is often built up level by level. You can customize your class, and have a wide variety of options available to you. Which is great! But it also means you should keep in mind what your options are at the next level or two before finalizing that choice.
Picking a character class feat at level 2, for instance, might unlock another feat at level 6 — so you’ll want to make sure you grab that prerequisite before you jump in.
Every Little +1 Matters
Whether you’re frightened, or posioned, or even just making multiple attacks per round, there are plenty of things that might cause you penalties to your attack. And even if nothing stands in your way, you still want to get your bonuses up as high as possible.
Because Pathfinder 2E allows a critical success/hit any time you beat your DC by 10 or more. Fail by 10 or more and you have a critical failure. So the higher the number, the bigger the chance of success.
Happy Adventuring
