Playtest II, Rogue Bugaloo

Just got home from playing the Pathfinder 2e playest module “Doomsday Dawn” Since my first playtest was lost to the ether, I figured I’d write my notes while the memories were hot.

Character Creation:  Went much easier this time, building a human rogue rather than a half elven bard. Without having to worry about spells (and the weird not right spell list of the bard) character creation was easy.  I went for two rogue feats, since I felt trap sense was essential (more on that later).

The multiclassing rules, well ‘archetypes’ as they’re called, caught my eye, so rather than build a character for the scenario, I went with a character I'd play through higher levels.  I chose human this time, because of wanting essentially an extra feat.  As a result, I built this character with both intelligence 16 (for the archetype) and dexterity 16 (because he’s a rogue, duh).  The stats ended up being like this.

Strength 12, Dexterity 16, Constitution 12, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 10, Charisma 12

Not ‘optimal’ (by comparison, the iconic Rogue has all 12s except for an 18 dexterity) but enough for my needs.  Next came that Race, er Ancestry feat.  I chose General Training to get feather step.  I then took the street urchin background, as the idea of a kid alone on the streets being taken in by a wizard fit the background I was going for.  Then we went on to class.

Rogue is surprisingly straightforward.  It is the ‘feat and skill monkey’ class, more so than even the bard.  And I love my bards.  With an intelligence of 16, my rogue has 13 skills he can be proficient in. By comparison there are 18 skills in Pathfinder 2e (not counting the subset of lore, which can get rather trivial.)  Add in underworld lore from the background I start at 14 skills.  Wow.  So, having taken all the roguey skills (acrobatics, athletics, craft, deception, diplomacy, intimidation performance, society, stealth and thievery), I moved on to what to do with my three remaining skills.  Well since I was going to multiclass wizard, arcana makes sense. (see below) I added in survival, to help represent the time he lived on the street, and finally Medicine, because why not?  So the only skills my rogue is not trained in are religion, occult, and nature (and all the subsets of lore, he’s not a jeopardy champ).  He’s a city boy after all. 

So now we go on to the class feats.  As I mentioned above, Trap Spotter seemed to be a must.  With traps being more lethal and disarming them a must, I thought the ‘danger sense’ aspect of trap sense was a must have.  That is gives bonuses to disarm and spot traps is even better.  The other first level feats pale in comparison.  Then I get a free ‘skill feat,’  The rogue gets one of these at every level. Going with my “rogue working for a wizard” concept, I took arcane sense, a feat that allows me to detect magic at will.  Again, the idea is that he can break into another wizard’s room and quickly find “the good stuff”. 

I think in some ways ‘feats’ is going to be to Pathfinder 2e what ‘level’ is to old school Dungeons and Dragons (see, this cartoon, for what I mean).  Race, er, ancestry feats, class feats, general feats.  It can be a feat to keep track of which is which.  

I’m of mixed feelings on skill feats. On the one hand they open up new possibilities, like battle medic giving an alternative to magical healing.  On the other, things that were part of a skill in first edition Pathfinder have become feats in second edition.  For example, survival has a section of skill on surviving in the wild, but then the forager feat just means you can do more at higher levels, which you could do in first edition with a simple skill roll.  Not a big deal, but I do worry that feats will come along in the future that make it so things you assumed were always possible, suddenly become impossible without the feat.  A term from the 3.X days of D&D was FSBNBNN “Feats should be nice, but not necessary.”

Equipment is pretty straightforward, hand crossbow, short sword and main gauche as weapons, studded leather armor and thieves tools.  Most all weapons have properties now, and my choice of melee weapons allowed me to add dexterity to damage and add a bonus to my armor class for an action.  I nicked most of my starting kit from the iconic rogue.

Finally, a name.  Having been listening to “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” I named him Tan Staafl.  Voila one complete character to run.

Now for the adventure and game play.

The party ran through part one of Doomsday Dawn, a multipoint module allowing for playtest at low to mid levels.  Our group consisted of my rogue, an iconic cleric, a monk, and a fighter.  With the exception of the iconic cleric, all the other PCs were created by the players (with the help of their parents).  We didn’t use the backgrounds in the module, but if we had, I’d have taken mindquake survivor.

The first combat was the most lethal.  With no darkvision and only one light source, combined with some incredible rolls, knocked most all the party down to single digits.  We made it through, barely, but burned out the cleric’s healing.  Thus, our humbled adventurers headed back to the town to heal.

Combat is much more swingy than first edition.  Between the new level of critical damage, and the new critical rules, a hot streak of rolls can wipe out a party.  Stealth is a must, and darkvision is even better than ever.  For some reason, goblins and dwarves are the only ones to have it.  

Trap sense was well worth it, as the traps in the scenario were picked up by the free perception check.  With healing and other magic being more limited, play smarter, not harder, looks to be the rule for second edition.  Teamwork is going to be your friend.

Initiative is also going to take some getting used to.  Perception is the initiative modifier now, with some situational exceptions.  Since it is a wisdom based skill, it means that clerics and druids will be the faster characters when the fight breaks out.  “Speed of cleric.” Is gone.  

Combat is simple with the ‘three actions and a reaction’ rule.  It also makes fights more challenging for characters like bards and other casters with concentration-based effects.  Concentration is an action to maintain.  So if your bard casts bane, and does bardic performance first round, that’s all three actions.  After that it is two actions, one to maintain inspire courage, one to concentrate on bane.  This leaves a move or attack.  Decisions, decisions.  It makes it more tactical and faster.  Bonuses are rarer now, which is good and bad.  Good in that it simplifies and speeds turns.  Bad in that it is hard to be really good at something. A first level character with +6 to +7 in skills is not unheard of in First Edition, but is impossible in Second.  Makes a first level rogue nervous with only a +3 or 4 to stealth. Skills run on a d20 + level + attribute modifier + proficiency.  Making it a toss up between equal level characters. 

In closing, Pathfinder Second Edition looks, in this beta, to be the difference between a Dodge Charger L-body and a Dodge Charger LX.  They have the same name, and look similar, but have many years of refinements and differences under the hood.  Will Pathfinder Second Edition be an Edsel?  We’ll see.  I’m cautiously optimistic, but still love my First Edition.

The Pathfinder open beta is currently a free download on Paizo.com