#ixdnd

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Played a few sessions of Pathfinder 2e and it’s still all so exciting to me. I hope it’s not just the novelty and the flaws are just less readily apparent. Some early thoughts:

Rounds are fast. Positioning is important. Weapons are interesting. No bullshit spells.

It’s a fluke that I’ve stumbled on one of the better designed classes — the Rogue. Tons of skills and feats to build around, though I’m probably fooling myself into thinking that I can do everything. I’d definitely play the class again, which is a good sign.

Thief is clearly the best racket, though. I’m playing a Ruffian, but that was before I realised that medium armor isn’t necessarily an improvement, and most useful weapons are agile anyway.

By comparison, a (bow-based) Ranger looks pretty boring, and spellcasters seem quite weak at these early levels.

Athletics and Medicine seem too generally applicable, but besides those, skill choices seem niche. Healing between combat with Medicine seems like an unwritten rule which I wish was more explicit (and didn’t feel like a feat tax). I can see all of my low-level characters looking similar.

I wish archetypes offered a little more – progression is a little slow and only the multiclass dedications seem like complete packages. We’re playing with Free Archetype. I’m ambivalent, but anything giving more feats should make character building interesting.

The game is great on Foundry, but it seems like it wouldn’t work so well at a table where not everyone knows the rules.

Random gripes (when the system is so vast, it’s easy to criticise):

I would definitely streamline ‘deadly’ and ‘fatal’ and a host of other things. Armor Class is a ‘special difficulty class’, immunity to bleed isn’t found in the stat blocks, creatures with immunity to critical hits still take critical effects.

Head Stomp and The Harder They Fall, two similarly situational feats, occupy the same slot. Gang Up, already an oppressively strong choice, gets even better in the remaster. Plant Evidence, which might be used once in a campaign (with middling odds of success), really ought to be a skill feat.

The remaster is annoying. I’m pretty turned off buying any of the material and just using online resources.

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It's taken over six months for me to actually miss Barclay Bluestring. I guess I've used the time to revise who he was compared to how I was able to play him.

I love that he swore an oath to protect the world, after spending a youth mocking knights. I love that his final action was to take a gamble with a cursed glove, dooming his soul. I love the only thing he's remembered for is ridding a city of its rat problem.

--

As much as I enjoy introducing myself as Barclay Bluestring, the music always felt tacked on. I like Bards in the sense of a polymath / dabbler / wanderer. Some martial proficiencies and a wonky spell list of tricks -- nothing that encroaches on the domain of a specialist. That flies against being a virtuoso. And I hate the idea of pulling a lute out in combat.

My reflavoured College of Spirits (2014) was alright - the spot of randomness was fun, but eventually most Bonus Actions were used for a fairly ludicrous Healing Word with some boons and items. The (proposed) new version of the subclass is nicely streamlined and would've been nice to play.

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Misty Step annoys me because 1) it nullifies a lot of positioning-based tension (terrain, grapples, surrounds, speed), 2) cooler, evocative spells are comparatively crap (e.g. Thunder Step, Ashardalon’s Stride), and 3) it feels too ubiquitous†. I try to avoid picking it, but that got a character killed.

Maybe I’d drop the range on it. Maybe let it provoke Opportunity Attacks. Maybe it costs all of your movement. Maybe the range varies or it has a chance to fail.

But it’s more of a fundamental tactical combat problem (movement has no cost → things that limit movement need to be more debilitating → cheap teleports are especially strong), so I guess everyone just bamf-s everywhere.

† About as bad as me taking Shield whenever I can (just about any character, unless they prioritise Healing Word). It’s an arms race with these combat spells.

We started looking at Nimble 5e and Nimble 2. Seems nice on paper, but it’s just easier to stick to the big fish. I’m sceptical about the 5e back-compatibility and losing players along the way.

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Been thinking a lot about these videos from Deficient Master. I guess it takes exaggerated editing and someone shouting at me that I’m “doing it wrong” to get out of the rut of watching inane videos about ranking status conditions.

Not sure if it was this video, or the perspective that Pathfinder 2e gave me, but definite shift in mindset this year.

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Been finding the One D&D playtest material rather interesting, if only in the same way it’s fun to follow patch notes for games I don’t play. Some of the changes are pretty elegant and would probably improve most people’s games, though it doesn’t really do anything about the fundamental dice rolling part of the game†.

Anyway, for all of the mechanical changes and niceties, there’s also a sort of blandness to the new material. For me, it’s the generic spurt of energy/healing/holiness which spellcasters perform that makes magic seem mundane and overly egalitarian. It probably doesn’t help that the default subclasses are very plain and mostly nerfed from their current versions.

I guess the wackiness needs to come from somewhere else.

†: My current qualm is with saving throws, since I’d need Lucky to safely step out of the Paladin’s aura of protection. I also kind of resent having expertise (+12) and pass without trace (+10) on skill checks since it makes them pointless to roll. Degrees of success is one way to patch over this. Managing expectations is another.

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Chronurgy Magic

I’m a little iffy about the new optimised Wizard in the party. Arcane Abeyance with spells that should take 10 minutes to cast is pretty bullshit, and it turned an interesting encounter into a totally non-threatening one. In the end, I’m probably more annoyed that she handed off the mote to me so I’m not only complicit, but I had to waste my action casting it!

Silvery Barbs

Totally fine with it if it didn’t work on saves as well. As is, it’s encounter disrupting, but doesn’t do anything that lucky rolls wouldn’t. My proposed balance is that you actually need to make a Vicious Mockery-style insult for it to work. I might take it myself in the future and only use it sparingly, but holding back creates a problem, too.

Principles

I’m still not able to define ‘bullshit’, but I think it’s along the lines of designer intention (potentially disregarding later rulings) rather than anything about balance or fantasy-feeling. I hate the aesthetic of hand crossbows and avoid them because I believe the intention for Crossbow Expert is to work in combination with a melee weapon rather than itself. (This didn’t change for One D&D, so maybe it’s time to give up that thought.)

The underlying ‘do what’s fun’ will always stay true, so I guess whatever goes as long as I make a median contribution to the party. And I can see a world where Lifeberry makes someone’s game healthier.

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Joined a random campaign on StartPlaying.games and I’m really enjoying things so far. I’m still not open/impulsive/extroverted enough to push the adventure to be more memorable, but I’m getting better!

I still think melee doesn’t confer enough advantage. My imagined fix would be more things provoking Attacks of Opportunity, and removing DEX bonuses to damage.

I tend to view everything through the lens of a Fighter, even though that’s the premiere ‘Attack’ class. It means that every turn that isn’t dealing damage is a waste in my mind, and class features need to be as good as ASIs.

Ranger is decent! But progression is much slower after Level 5. It’s probably better to start levelling in Druid or something but I’ll try to make it work.

Speaking of which, ‘Spells Known’ feels bad. And it’s a shame because I really like the Ranger spell options.

I’m enjoying the Fey Wanderer. It’s flavourful and encourages me to interact more. It’s not that dramatic in combat, but none of the party is really optimised anyway. 

I’ve generally been taking attribute bonuses. I think it’s because picking feats feels like a choice I’ll be judged on and I personally dislike Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert.

I reckon weapon damage is too weak. Magical weapons should do 2× damage, rather than +1.

Still need to get my head out of the video game mindset. Prodding stuff isn’t going to kill you!

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Enjoyed playing through Solasta, a mostly solid campaign despite the limitation of being a video game.

Having rules enforced helps me understand the game much better — 5e mechanics feel better with grid combat. It’s certainly down to encounter design, but I don’t feel like martial classes are weak any more. (Eldritch Knight still sucks!)

I do have an urge to play tabletop again, but also think back on all the awkwardness and wonder if it’s for me. I think I just really like chunky level ups, and a playground to utilise them. I don’t really know how to make stories my own. 7