Background: Chosen One By ezfi On Reddit

kind of obsessed with thesaurus dot com claiming that lover is a synonym for knight

Pathfinder 2e New Player Resource Masterpost

Hey there! Looking to get into PF2e? You’re making a great decision, but you may not know where to start! I’ve put together a handy list of resources you can consult while getting into the game. As always, if you ever have questions about PF2e, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I love this system, and I love helping new players!

Official Resources

The Archives of Nethys are the official host for the PFSRD. You can find ALL of the rules of the game for free there. Literally everything that is not Golarian specific is on the Archives, and all of it is laid out incredibly well. It may not look quite as flashy as beyond, but its search functions and layout are superior. 

If you buy one product from Paizo as you get started, I HAVE to recommend to BEGINNER BOX. This thing is fantastic. It simplifies the rules, gives you GORGEOUS character sheets that highlight all of your abilities, and have a fun little adventure that dovetails nicely into either their Troubles in Otari or Abomination Vaults modules. (As someone who has run both of those now, they’re both fantastic as well and I highly recommend them.) 

Beyond the Beginner Box, I would also suggest picking up a Core Rulebook. It is true that all of the rules information is already laid out in the Archives, but having a CRB on handd is nice for the art, plus the book is laid out incredibly well. If you can’t afford a CRB at this time, though, you’ll still be good! You might also watch for Humble Bundles, as they often have great Pathfinder packs on there, and sometimes it includes Physical CRBs, in addition to a load of other great PDFs. 

When looking to GM, I recommend the following pages in the CRB first. I’ve also linked the corresponding Archive pages: 

Introduction, Pages 7-31. This will give you the rundown on key terms, how characters are created, the base flow of the game, and the action system (the best part of pf2e!)

Playing the Game, Pages 443-481. This is the longest section of the rulebook to read, but there’s a lot of great stuff in here. This will give you the rules for checks, combat, conditions, resolving actions, and the differences between encounter, exploration, and downtime mode. The most important is encounter and exploration mode, so you can feel free to only skim the downtime mode section of this part. 

The Gamemastering section has a lot of great stuff, but for a GM, your two most important sections will be the following:

Encounter Building, pages 488 and 489. The rules for building encounters work in this system, and they work WELL. Obviously, environment, terrain, and how a specific groups strengths and weaknesses compare to a monster affect things, but if you budget a moderate encounter, it can be expected to be moderate. Just be sure you recognize that Moderate encounters are still meant to be challenging in this system, and Severe encounters are potentially deadly. Extreme encounters should be used incredibly sparingly. Maybe 1 or 2 times per campaign.

DC Charts and Adjusting DCs. Pages 503 and 504.  If you ever need a quick DC, these charts are your friend. You don’t need to memorize them, but you’ll want to have them in an easy-to-reference spot.

Youtubers

There are a lot of great youtubers for PF2e. I’ll only be highlighting a few of my favorites here!

How It’s Played  is probably the best resource for a new player, and helped me a ton with all of the rules when I started GMing. They do close looks at different subsystems, and clearly break down how the rules apply. You don’t need to watch all of their content before you jump in and play, but if you watch a few of their main series on PF2e between each session, you’ll be a rules master in no time! 

I also really enjoy The Rules Lawyer. He always has well-reasoned takes on things going on in the hobby, and and has an enjoyable calm/measured tone. I highly recommend his “Combat Tactics” videos, as he highlights some of the major differences with 5e and what things are now expected to survive. A lot of common 5e tactics are a way to a quick death in PF2e, but you do have the tools to survive!

The final Youtuber I’ll be highlighting is Nonat1s. He’s puts out quite a variety of videos, including skits and other fun things, but is also a wonderful ambassador for the game and gives great character advice as well. I want to highlight his “Welcome to Pathfinder Second Edition” video, which is just perfect!

Other Resources

I can’t create a list of resources without calling out Pathbuilder! It is hands down the best character builder, and its available on desktop and mobile. It’s mostly free, with a small donation being required to unlock premium features. At this time, there is no crossover between the web app and desktop besides being able to save and access characters from google drive.

The Pathfinder 2e Subreddit  is a wonderful community of people, and it’s a great place for discussion. There’s weekly question megathreads, discussions about releases, people highlighting great builds and fun things in the system, and it’s probably the quickest place to keep track of announcements. There’s also a lot of love for 3pp there!

Speaking of 3pps, I LOVE the Battlezoo line! One of my players is OBSESSED with dragons, and they have a whole book that was tailor-made for him, and it’s incredibly balanced and fun. They’ve also got a whole bunch of other cool stuff that’s been kickstarted and will be releasing soon. 

What VTT should you use if you’re playing online? My hat is thrown into the ring for Foundry VTT. It’s my VTT of choice. It’s wildly powerful with the Pathfinder 2e system, and a wonderful community of devs have gotten the system almost entirely automated so you can focus on RP! It’s a breeze as a GM as well, and the only difficulty is in self-hosting, but even that isn’t too bad. Their site has a great set of guides, starting HERE with the ways you can host. If you choose to self-host, you only need to make a 1-time payment of 50 dollars for the software, and only one person needs to actually do the hosting. Split between a group? That’s incredibly affordable, especially considering there is no subscription!

I’m gonna shout MYSELF out here. I put together a List of Actions you can take in combat that isn’t just moving or attacking. Coming from 5e, it can be easy to get stuck in the loop of move and attack, but there are so many more options, and those options are very crucial. This isn’t comprehensive, but covers the basics characters can have access to with only minor skill investment.

My latest Terrible* DnD Campaign idea:

Scaling Hard "Nuzlocke" Mode.

We're gonna take the entire XP mechanic and through it out the fucking window.

Everyone starts at level one, but they make a backup character at the next level. They play that first character at level one until shit gets too hard and they die. No rezzes. Next available opportunity, bring in the backup level two character. Player makes a new backup, at level three.

So on, so forth.

The only way to level up is to die. The core goals/challenges are:

be the lowest level character to make it to the end of the campaign

get to explore a whole lot more classes and characters than you would normally

conversely, deal with the gritty reality of how dangerous this life of adventure is as so many of your party keeps falling

meta-wise, built in scaling system for less skilled players: die a lot? wind up stronger and stronger more quickly to balance it out

something something Ship Of Theseus adventurers guild?

THINKING ABOUT the merging of sailors and ship that takes place in the act of sailing & how the ship becomes more and more human and the sailors become more and more mechanism until at some point it perfectly evens out & their bodies are enmeshed to the point there’s one great seamless living Body with many parts. thinking about how if it’s a warship the wood of the ship is absorbing the blood and sweat and tears of the sailors and the sailors are likewise absorbing elements of the ship. thinking about how they’ve both got ribs

Web Spinner Conclave: Ranger

Time to become your local neighbourhood, web-swinging hero.

[G Drive Link]

More Non-Monetary Rewards

People seemed to like the previous list, so I thought I’d make some more.

Honorary Titles (courtesy of Vlad)

Free passage aboard any vessel in the fleet

A scroll of any spell the court wizard can cast

A manual outlining the fundamentals of the local language

A portion of land with a fixer-upper of a keep

The finest hound from the kennels

A large, unidentified, jewel encrusted egg

The captain of the guard as a retainer

A map detailing the location of a mythic treasure

The book of vile darkness

A willow extract that cures headaches

A book of coupons (near expiry)

Image source This was the first subclass I ever made and I'm stilllll tinkering with the thing - it's, fittingly, stuck in a time loop of rewrites.

Have a great week!

Hello! I'd like to share with you a character work game! I call it "Six Secrets" and honestly it's a work in progress but I'm sharing it anyway

List six secrets that your character has.

1 is an open secret

2 is a secret the people close to your character know

3 is a secret that your character wouldn't really care about getting out

4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about

5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone

6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don't want anyone to know about.

You can also decide who knows and how

The secrets don't have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn't matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character's intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with

Figuring out your OC's 'voice' and physicality/characterization

I often struggle with creating distinct characters, so I came up with some questions about your OCs that I haven't seen in any other lists.

I recommend answering these for each character once you've already spent some time with them on the page.

What irks other people about the way they converse?

What kind of conversations do they usually have?

Are they a good listener?

How do they react to confrontation?

How do they react to being corrected?

How do they correct others?

Do they tend to speak in long sentences, short & clipped sentences, or somewhere in between?

How likely are they to heed social cues when talking to others?

How likely are they to use body language rather than words to express discomfort and other emotions?

Do they care more about getting their way, or more about how others feel?

What's their favourite skill?

What niche thing are they competent at?

What trait immediately draws them to other people?

What trait immediately repels them?

Even if they haven't met (or even if they're not even in the same universe!), what would your other OCs' first impression of them be?

What makes them angry?

What makes them sad?

What makes them happy?

What's their posture like?

How do they want others to see them?

How do they move through a room?

Do they prefer being barefoot, and if not, what kind of footwear do they usually like best?

What kind of climate do they prefer?

What would make them distrust somebody?

What would they consider the greatest betrayal?

CUTE Pathfinder 2e Character Sheets just dropped!! 🎉🎉🎉

Find them here!