5 HUGE Differences Between D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e

okay yeah let's make another one DND 5e and Pathfinder 2E incredibly similar systems on the surface but once you pop the hood open you realize you don't know how to fix this car it's a weird analogy but I'm gonna go with it well they're both High fantasy role-playing games that use ability scores and levels the actual gears that make them work are incredibly different so we're gonna do five more major differences between Pathfinder 2E and DND 5e I do sincerely want to say thank you to everybody who has supported the channel this past month this growth has been explosive to say the least and by far the part of it I'm most proud of is that five major differences video so thank you and again I'll say it if you want to see more videos like this one even more differences because trust me I could make at least 10 videos in this series leave a like and a comment and maybe even subscribe to the channel to see more but you see there is something important here before we can talk about the five major differences we got to talk about today's sponsor loremaster IO has been my go-to campaign manager for the better part of about a year and a half two years now it is such a different unique take on the classic campaign organizer for your tabletop role-playing game I'm a person who doesn't like doing too much prep and at the same time I'm a very visual person thus Paige is upon pages of notes just get lost on me the reason I love loremaster so much is because of their unique node system on loremaster you can set up a whole map of nodes for me I like to set up nodes for each of the cities in my campaign clicking on one of those nodes takes me into that City to another set of nodes with things like important NPCs and notable locations you can see here in my town of aaronport I have the NPC Captain kurdick and the rusty Tankard Tavern just clicking one of these takes me to the appropriate notes page so rather than sifting through tabs or trying to flip through a notebook I can just click the appropriate nodes especially if I already know which city my players are in and get the information I need just like that on top of the node system they've recently improved their Pathfinder to e stat blocks meaning you can now copy paste almost perfectly from archives of nephis so let's say my players are going to face some direwolves next session well all I have to do is create a new pf2 stat Block open direwolves on Archives of nethus copy everything from the name to the bottom of their abilities and boom just paste it right into the stat block and it's pretty much perfect loremaster IO is still in open Beta so if you want to get access to this early go ahead and use the link in the description to join their patreon for as little as four dollars a month or only forty dollars a year if you pay annually it really is a phenomenal option for people who are looking for a different type of campaign manager like I said the visual learner in me really appreciates the note it makes every everything so much more tangible so thank you loremaster IO for sponsoring this video let's talk differences difference number one monsters this information is important both for players and GMS monsters in Pathfinder 2E are a lot more than just a stat Block in fact pretty much every monster in the game comes with at least one special ability while a DND 5e zombie is pretty much just going to punch you to death the Pathfinder 2E zombie is going to punch you follow that up with a free grapple and then if it still has you grappled it's going to start biting you with a stronger attack and that's something that's incredibly helpful about these special abilities is it tells you how the monster likes to fight you can see that in order for the zombie to use its jaws it needs to have you grabbed well luckily it's fist attack automatically grabs on a success so what's the zombie gonna try to do it's gonna try to punch you wrap around and eat your neck additionally Pathfinder 2E monsters always have a weak link of some kind whether it's a low Armor class a low fortitude reflex or will save or maybe something more unique like a Golem's anti-magic the stat blocks between the two systems honestly aren't that different aside from their layout the big difference is that while DND stat blocks are in a nice little even Square Pathfinder stat blocks tend to curve to the artwork of the page this is an inherently a bad thing but I do personally prefer the five e-stat blocks as they're just a little more organized but where Pathfinder 2E absolutely Takes the Cake is with their version of challenge rating it's not an uncommon opinion to say challenge rating is worthless it sometimes feels totally random and sometimes a difficult encounter from The Challenge rating is actually a complete joke where a weak challenge rating encounter could actually tpk the party because there's not a whole lot of consistency meanwhile Pathfinder 2e's version of challenge rating is actually based on party level this is best seen in something like the ancient red dragon in DND 5e an ancient red dragon is challenge rating 24. what does that mean I really have no idea but in Pathfinder second edition an ancient red dragon is creature level 19. this means it is a moderate threat for a group of level 17 characters Pathfinder 2 is encounter XP budget system is so intuitive and easy because it doesn't change from level to level you can see that no matter what level your character is it only takes a thousand experience to level up but the amount of XP you receive from a monster is based on their level relative to yours so if you're a level 5 character then killing a level 5 creature is worth 40 experience and if you're level 12 and kill a level 12 creature it's worth 40 experience and then you just follow this table as a GM to establish anything between a trivial to an extreme encounter based on on the total XP worth of enemies it's made in counter building so easy and it's one of my favorite things that doesn't get talked about much in this system just keep in mind when using the XP budget that it's based on a party of four and if you have more or less than four players follow the character adjustment and add it for more players or subtract It For Less players difference number D alright if you can only take one thing away from this video take this survival in Pathfinder 2E does not mean avoiding damage if you come into this expecting to play like your DND character whose armor class is so high they rarely get hit it's not going to work even the most Min maxed character is going to take a hit more often than not and the biggest issue I've seen with people who want to play a bulky frontliner is they keep taking damage and they get irritated they feel like the character they've built is failing because they're plate male Tower Shield Champion is still getting hit every turn clearly this character sucks because I'm taking damage this is not how it works in Pathfinder 2 e let me use two similar creatures as an example it's not hard to start with 18 Armor class in DND 5e if you have a shield and good armor a goblin Warrior only has a plus three to hit you meaning it's only hitting you on a 15 or higher meanwhile that same Goblin in Pathfinder 2E creature level negative one has a plus eight to hit you this thing is hitting you on a 10 or higher if you have an 18 Armor class an 18 Armor class is not bad in Pathfinder 2E I think 19 is the highest Min maxed starting armor you can get this means 50 of the time you're taking a hit from that level negative one Goblin now this sounds rough and kind of scary but keep this in mind your wizard in the back line might have an armor class of 14 meaning this Goblin hits them on a six or higher and critically hits them on a 16 or higher when a creature is attacking you the high Armor class tank in instead sure you're taking a hit but you're taking a hit that a might have critically hit your Ally and B would have hit your ally for damage that they have less hit points to absorb anyway being a bulky frontliner in Pathfinder 2E is about taking the damage for your allies and hopefully taking more normal hits than Critical Hits I need to stress this because I've seen multiple times new players get irritated and stop having fun simply because they weren't aware this is how it works but let me be very clear if you are a frontliner you fall unconscious you are doing your job because that 25 damage that knocked you down could have easily knocked down your Wizard and your sorcerer both in the same number of attacks armor class in Pathfinder 2E is not about avoiding hits it's about avoiding crits difference number three is a pretty simple one that gets more nuanced the more you look into it and that is the multiple attack penalty in case you're unaware characters don't get extra attacks at certain levels like you do in DND 5th edition rather you always have three actions and right at level one even as a wizard you could make three melee attacks right in a row this is balanced by the fact that your second attack will be at -5 and your third attack will be at -10 to hit this is known as the multiple attack penalty and with the exception of a few Niche characters like the flurry Ranger going for that third attack every turn is not a great idea when your attack bonus is a plus six and you're taking a minus 10 you're probably not gonna hit however manipulating that multiple attack penalty is half the battle there are a lot of Feats and abilities available to a lot of different classes that let them circum vent or reduce this penalty like the aforementioned flurry Ranger instead of taking a -5 per attack they only take a minus three hell if they're using a light weapon like a dagger they only take a minus two or maybe a dual wielding fighter will use double slice this lets them attack twice at the same time at the same bonus sure it increases their penalty by two but only after they've made their two attacks and gotten around that multiple attack penalty on the other hand you can try to circumvent that penalty entirely by not using as many attack actions spellcasters actually have a really good opportunity to take advantage of this if you are something like a druid with a short bow then for your first two actions you could cast something like electric Arc that's a saving throw spell because the spell does not require an attack roll from you it does not increase your multiple attack penalty so after casting electric Arc you could take a shot with your short bow electric Arc is just as efficient as it always is and your short bow is at your full bonus letting you do two different offensive options and letting your spell Caster use a weapon on the same turn as they cast a spell which is awesome and that's available right at level one on the subject of avoiding that dreaded third attack at -10 let's go into difference number four and that is skills in combat in DND 5e I really hate saying it skills are almost worthless in combat it's very rare that in my experience anybody will ever roll a skill outside of maybe Athletics in combat and even then it's usually when an enemy has an ability that tries to knock you down that you make a contested Athletics check and part of this is just due to skill actions and d d not being that effective hell grappling shoving and tripping in 5e just isn't worth much when they can just stand back up but in Pathfinder 2E there's a ton of actions available to everybody and even more actions available to people with certain trained proficiency and skills that you can use on your turn and here real quick I'm going to go over some of my favorite skill actions that you can take in combat on any character even if you're untrained now obviously if you're untrained these are going to be more difficult to succeed but at least they're not going to be at a minus four like your multiple attack I'm gonna start with the most popular skill action and that's demoralized demoralize is just so powerful and again it's available to everybody even if you're untrained in intimidation using an intimidation check if you succeed a Target becomes frightened one and frightened is one of the most powerful conditions in the game because it gives them a minus one to everything attack rolls Armor class saving throws skill checks all of those take a minus one until the end of its next turn meaning if it just went and you successfully demoralize it that means its armor class is dropped by one not just for you but for the rest of your party if you plan to attack in the turn and you don't have anything else planned for that third action demoralize first if you succeed you're gonna reduce its armor class making your other two attacks even more accurate create a diversion look what's that over there with a deception check if you succeed you are considered hidden from that Target until the end of your current turn now that might not sound like a long time but what's important is this lets you make an attack while hidden sure this breaks your hidden condition but the target is flat-footed to that attack this is one of the only reliable ways to get flat-footed on a ranged attack if you are a rogue with a short bow you can create a diversion become hidden and then make a ranged attack against them they're flat-footed you hit boom sneak attack damage alternatively if you've already got cover you can make use of the Hide action as long as you are behind cover between you and your target you can just roll a stealth check and if you succeed you become hidden once again you can make an attack roll the target is flat footed it breaks your hidden condition but the glory of hide is that because you're still behind cover you could just hide again in this is literally you walking up to cover ducking down poking up and taking a shot and ducking back down hide ranged attack hide is an amazing repeatable combo if you're someone who needs that extra accuracy or a rogue who needs sneak attack the final skill action I'll cover here today is recall knowledge this is one that a lot of people are afraid to do because it doesn't directly deal damage or make you more accurate and it's a little bit GM dependent but usually a successful recall knowledge will at least get you weaknesses or resistances of the thing you're fighting and if you have a nice GM like me they'll likely also tell you their highest or lowest saving throw so if I tell you that troll looks incredibly sturdy you might not want to use something with a fortitude save but if I let you know it seems a bit dull-minded you might know oh will saves the way to go and finally the fifth big difference deserves its own video and that's why it's going to get one but I will go over the very Bare Basics here because I'm talking about the world of galerion and the Inner Sea region this world is touted by most Pathfinder players as one of the best parts of the system the world is insane the lore goes so deep and there's so much to cover people have been asking me to cover lore for a long time and pretty soon y'all are gonna get it so just be patient so why is the lore so good why do I recommend the world as one of the five major differences well first off it's got a lot of analogous settings to what you're used to in something like Forgotten Realms if you're used to running something in a place like waterdeep consider using the city of Absalom which is a massive City on an island and the biggest city in the region speaking of the region known as the Inner Sea this is the main primary location of Pathfinder 2E and all of its pre-written content there's plenty of world Beyond it on the planet of galerion but the system focuses primarily on the Inner Sea region this is one location roughly 3 000 miles north to south and probably about 1500 to 2 000 miles east to west for reference that's about the size of the United States of America give or take and this one region has countless different climates and cultures allowing you to run so many different types of Adventure or have one Adventure experience a multitude of different genres imagine if you would the United States of America now imagine that New England is covered in a permanent Arctic climate with Primal megafauna roaming the land imagine Texas is just a massive jungle the Midwest is a set of plains and forests constantly contested by various kingdoms and cities imagine that New York City was actually placed off the coast in the middle of the ocean North Dakota is inhabited by sentient Living Dead and Nevada is mostly desert wait a minute what I'm trying to say is that any kind of climate or culture you're looking for can be found somewhere in the NRC region meaning you can run exactly the adventure you want and Pathfinder will have something pre-written to help you flesh it out the world is amazing and I can't wait to start breaking it down for y'all in the near future but for now those are my five biggest difference between Pathfinder and DND 5e again let me know if you want to see more likes subscriptions and comments below are the best way to tell me that I need to make more of these I've got some awesome plans but I want to make sure y'all actually want those videos I want to give a huge shout out to my patreon supporters and YouTube members and unfortunately you might notice the names aren't on screen anymore that's because there's like 200 of you now and I don't know how to fit it all on screen or do it in such a way that it doesn't take me an hour and a half to update I'll figure out how to do that in the future or leave me some ideas in the comments below but for now I'll just give you a heartfelt thank you your financial support is what helps me keep doing what I'm doing if you would also like to support the channel there's a big join button beneath the video thank you all so very much for watching I can't wait to see you in the next video and until next time no net ones

Channel: Nonat1s

Views: 52,617

Keywords: Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, Pathfinder Second Edition, Advanced Player's Guide, Pathfinder 2e APG, Nonat1s, Pathfinder 2e Nonat1s, Pathfinder 2e Level 1, Pathfinder 2e new features, Pathfinder 2e New Ancestries, Pathfinder 2e Gamemastery Guide, differences between dnd and pathfinder, dnd 5e vs pathfinder 2e, 5e vs 2e, switch from 5e to 2e, leaving D&D, quitting dnd, OGL 1.1, Wizards of the coast, Pathfinder OGL, ORC License, D&D to Pathfinder, Switching from D&D to Pathfinder

Id: KPtJHfIDd30

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 31 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/JLtheking]

His second point is a really good one that’s rarely talked about. I’ve personally experienced some of my players get really pissed off when their their “tank” character gets dropped to 0 hit points after a few hits, and either blame the game system or even me, the GM, for making the encounter too hard.

5e is an incredibly easy game. Players coming over to pf2 often need to have their expectations radically adjusted, and that friction can often turn players off.

[u/TurnFanOn]

Grab doesn't mean auto grab, it costs an action!

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