An Introduction to Pathfinder 2e
So, you're thinking about switching games to Pathfinder 2nd Edition from Dungeons & Dragons 5e! Not sure where to start, how to start or why to start? Fear not, adventurers! This little thread will give you everything you need to know about Pathfinder and how to start!
What is Pathfinder 2e?
Pathfinder is a game that started off as a spin-off of D&D 3.5th Edition when D&D 4e was released. It follows the same class-based D20 system under Wizards of the Coast's Open Gaming License, with many of the same monsters and creatures as D&D 5e, and, for a while, was actually more popular than D&D too. Eventually, Paizo scrapped a lot of cumbersome rules that were still inherited by D&D 3.5, and the system was rewritten from the ground up - while a lot of the concepts were kept intact, whole system was streamlined for more flexibility and better play. The result was Pathfinder 2nd Edition!
Who is Paizo?
Paizo is the company behind the Pathfinder brand. They are a very community centric team, frequently directly interacting with and staying very much in touch with the desires and needs of their target audience. They make very liberal use of the Open Gaming License to get their content into the hands of as many people as possible. Added benefit, they have always been a group in favor of making TTRPGs more inclusive, and their diverse team with both queer and BIPOC leads have written oodles of canon queer lore. They also did the whole "no evil races" thing years ago. They are awesomesauce!
Pathfinder 2e Features
Pathfinder 2e has a lot of interesting mechanics going for it. It is an incredibly versatile and flexible system, literally plug and play! But even though Pathfinder 2e is its own unique system, fear not! You will find a lot of its concepts familiar coming from D&D 5e.
System
Below you will find a few of the things that make the Pathfinder 2e system itself so awesome to play.
Solid Balancing
The game is exceptionally well balanced. Martial classes now possess a similar amount of flexibility and options as casters did, making them a ton more fun to play! You can actually do more stuff than attack on your turns! They also possess incredible athletic abilities; Fighters jumping 30 feet into the air, Barbarians shape shifting into dragons, Rogues running across clouds or water... you name it!
Casters have been streamlined and are just as fun to play as ever. No more half-caster shenanigans! Bards for example are now Level 10 Casters, just like Druids or Wizards, and Sorcerers get additional spells which activate abilities from your bloodline every time they cast them, reflecting their unique bloodline, making them a totally unique class!
Wait, did you say Level 10 casters?! That's right. At high levels— and most parties will get to high levels, with Level 20 being the goal for most campaigns!— casters unlock 10th level spells, magic on the level of Wish or Time Stop. It really makes playing casters a blast!
The 3-Actions Economy
The Action Economy is the most widely praised part of the game. On your turn you get three Actions. You can use an Action to do any one thing; run, jump, attack, you name it! You can do these as many times as you want; you can run twice, attack once, attack three times, etc.!
Casting spells for example takes two actions— this stops casters from blasting 3 fireballs in a row on their turn!
Degree of Success
Pathfinder 2e has done away on the double-binary that is Sucess or Failure, and on specific rolls critically respectively— all of that is merged into one cool consistent system called Degree of Success— and it works absolutely wonderful! When you roll against a DC (including AC), rolling 10 above the DC gives you the effects of a Critical Success, as if you rolled a Nat 20! Meanwhile, rolling 10 below a DC gives you a Critical Failure, as if you rolled Nat 1. Of course, the concept of Nat1 and Nat20 still exist— but they play right into this Degree of Success system; you treat a Nat1 as one degree lower on the result and a Nat20 as one degree higher. So a Failure on a Nat1 becomes a critical failure, a Sucess on a Nat20 becomes a Critical Success! Easy and neat, huh?!
Immersive Initiative
Initiative Modifier? Ha! There's no one Initiative Roll. You roll whatever skill is most applicable at the start of a fight! Facing off against an enemy in front of you? Roll Perception to see who notices the threat first and jump into action! Swinging off a chandelier? Roll Acrobatics! Sneaking up on someone? Stealth!
Setting and Lore
The lore of Pathfinder is fantastic. With an expansive setting on the planet Golarion, virtually every culture has an equivalent here— the Philippines has the nation of Minata, Revolutionary France has Galt, Transylvannia has Ustalav... the world is your oyster, literally!
A lot of research goes into exploring these places— and there's a lot of canon adventures. The monthly Adventure Path series releases (A series of adventures chained together to form one huge narrative, usually including 5-6 entire adventure books!) critically acclaimed adventures from Level 1-20 exploring Golarion and tell brilliant and stunning stories. They rock!
The deities in Pathfinder are extremely well fleshed out. Gods have relationships, backstories and can even curse or bless you depending on your actions! The God of Adventure, Cayden Cailean, accidentally became a god on a bet while drunk, and even diverse ones; the Goddesses of the Moon, Art & Sun are polyamorous!
Diverse Monsters
Let's talk beasties! They are actually really diverse in Pathfinder 2e. Gone are the days of 'Yet Another Attack Action Block' (YAAAB)— with diverse reactions and attack mechanics creatures now are truly unique! Like the blood-sucking Bloodseeker, using its attack to attach to an unfortunate creature and using follow-up actions to suck the very lifejuices out of the victim; or did you stumble upon a lustful succubus, yet managed to resist her charm? Well, you just dealt damage to the rejected femme fatale! No two encounters will feel remotely the same! And it doesn't stop there, Opportunity Attacks (phrased Attack of Opportunity in Pathfinder 2e, or AoO) have been moved to being a feature instead of a granted system, leaving room for totally awesome new reactions creatures can take— leading to far less minesweeper encounters where movement becomes stale after the first engagement!
Character Development
Fancy seeing what the system has in tow for your eager mind, dreaming about creating your dream Character? Read on!
Ancestry and Heritage
Races, which are now called Ancestry, have dozens of suboptions available on top of the race selection itself via the Heritage system! Sure you're an elf- but are you a forest elf? An arctic elf? Hell, maybe you're a Tiefling Elf or a Dhampir Elf! Each has their own benefits and abilities you can choose as you level up! This split between Ancestry and Heritage gives incredible flexibility to further define your character! You are not like any other Elf, you are you!
Everything is a Feat
After picking your race and class in D&D 5e, there is little other choices to be made after 3rd level. Not so in Pathfinder 2e! Feats have not been taken to the quiet corner, but instead are a core tenet of character development! That means, in PF2e, you make meaningful choices. Every. Level. New ways to play your class! New unlocked skill abilities! Grow into your race (now called ancestry) more!
That leads to no two characters being the same. You could play a Champion (the Paladin class!) three times, each wildly different. Do you want to be a Reinhardt type Shield Tank? A holy Liberator fighting against slavery with a sword? A merciful redeemer giving out second chances? All of that and more is possible!
Fine-grained Proficiencies
Proficiency is broken down into Untrained, Trained, Master, Expert or Legendary. This follows a simple formula of Ability Score Modifier + your Flat Level + Proficiency Modifier— and your Ability Score Modifiers work the exact same way as in 5e! This means every Level, your AC will rise, your Attack Mod will rise, and so on. You will always grow more powerful! Imagine having a +34 to hit at Level 20!
Multiclassing
Gone are the days of complicated balancing between level progression of your characters classes. Meet Dedications! Your new gateway into picking up options beyond the scope of your own class! Ever just wanted to Lay on Hands with a Barbarian? Now you can do that! Cherrypick your favourite parts of the selected dedication, and leave the rest at home!
Archetypes
Not enough options yet? Feeling your character still needs that special something sprinkled on top? Pick an archetype! Available to everyone as long as prerequisites are met, this is an entire additional bag of tricks and treats from which you can cherrypick to round your your character out— and they are super thematic as well! Fancy an animal companion with the Beastmaster archetype?
Resources
That's enough explaining the game and what makes it so awesome: here's a few resources you can use to get your adventure in the world of Golarion started!
Archive of Nethys (Link)
This has everything! I'm talking this is an official repository that has all of PF2's rules online. For free. Can't afford books? All you're missing is the pretty layout and the beautiful illustrations. But the meat of it all— it is all online for free, word for word, as presented in the book.
PF2 Easy Library (Link)
Know the name of a feat, monster or item, and don't want to trawl the archives? Slap it in there for super fast reference! Much quicker and accessible at times. Has filters galore, a spell library, you name it!
PF2 Tools (Link)
This is your catchall for everything else. I mean everything else. Homebrew resources? Podcasts? Character sheets? Anything else you might want is stored here. These 3 resources alone are fantastic, and definitely far more than enough to get you started!
Upcoming Content
Unlike 5e, Pathfinder regularly releases content containing player options. Other than the monthly Adventure Paths, you can expect new ancestries, new classes and a ton of new feats and spells on the regular! In fact, at the end of July 2020, the Advanced Player Guide released!
A practical Case: Advanced Player's Guide
The Advanced Player's Guide, brings a lot of new options to the table:
- 10 new Ancestries (Ratfolk, Tengu, Kobolds, Aasimar and Tiefling heritage, oh my—)
- 4 entirely new and unique Classes making their reappearance under Pathfinder 2e rules! (Investigator, Witch, Swashbuckler, and Oracle)
- 40 (40!!!) new archetypes for you to to use, with each one unlocking a vast amount of additional thematic abilities that any character can take for near endless possibilities!
And all of this in one singular book. Easy on the wallet, and a ton of content— and that's just after almost 1 year after the Core Rulebook released!
Changelog
- v2.0 - Major reformatting and restructuring of the documents content including a huge writing overhaul
- v1.1 - Adjustments to the wording about spellcasters, the APG archetype bulletin and grammar fixes.
- v1.0 - Initial Release
Credits
This document was compiled by Pudding#8224 on Discord. Feel free to drop me a message if you like it or have suggestions for improvement!
- A huge thank you to @DiceWillRoll on twitter, of whomst Tweet-chain this document is based off of!
- Thanks to the friendly people of the Pathfinder Discord for their contributions and feedback!