Getting Started with Pathfinder 2e

greetings Gamers my name is Anto and this video is going to give you everything you need to know to get started playing Pathfinder second edition in this video I'm going to be going over the very basics of the core gameplay Loop I'm going to be telling you what products are probably best for you to buy depending on whether you're a player a game master and whether you have experience with ttrpgs on it and then I'm going to be pointing you to some more resources to help you dive deeper into this game Pathfinder second edition is for people who want an RPG to tell classic fantasy stories in a diverse and wild world for players who want to express themselves through a huge variety of fun character options and for GMS who want robust guidance and Frameworks that work so in Pathfinder second edition you play as a fantasy Adventurer following one of several archetypal classes like fighter wizard Rogue or some more unique and interesting things like Oracle thormitage or inventor the core game play Loop is anytime you want to do something that has a chance of failure you roll a 20-sided die and then you add modifiers to that if the result of that dice roll on those modifiers is equal to or exceeds the target number or difficulty class of the thing that you're trying to do you succeed now Pathfinder second edition is different to something like DND 5e in the way that it handles its degrees of success in Pathfinder there are four degrees of success there are critical failure failure success and critical success anytime you exceed the DC the difficulty class by 10 or more your degree of success increases by one so if you would normally hit a creature but you roll 10 over what its armor class is you critically hit the creature same when it comes to failure if you roll 10 below the DC of Any Given check your degree of success goes down by one now some weapons different abilities Feats and spells have additional rules that trigger on critical failure or critical success so you've got a lot more variety in the things that happen when you are making an attacks performing in checks or cast in spells the biggest difference between Pathfinder second edition and many other game systems like DND 5e is the three action economy in pathfanna's second edition everything you have three actions and a reaction you can use those two actions to do anything you want you want to move move move and spread it across the battlefield use your three actions you understand that and attack something three times you can do but each attack after the first is gonna have a penalty this is called the multiple attack penalty and it starts at -5 with your second attack and goes to -10 with your third though you can lower that with some features everything that you can possibly do in combat in Pathfinder second edition is broken up into this action economy so some things will only cost a single action a lot of spells cost two actions two cast giving you that third action to play around with each turn and then some actions are also free meaning you don't need to use one of those three actions you get every turn to do them reactions like in a lot of games only happen when something triggers them the class example of this is the attack of opportunity this only applies to Fighters and certain monsters from the start of the game though you can pick this up as a feat later on but anytime a creature moves out of your threatened range you can use your action to make an attack against them the fact that attack of opportunity isn't Universal like it is in a lot of other games frees up the battlefield and allows creatures to move around a lot more which gives you a lot more Dynamic and interesting combats instead of where everyone comes together in a line and just hits each other till they're dead the other three big things that you need to know before you start playing Pathfinder second edition is the proficiency system traits and types of bonuses there are four levels of proficiency trained Master expert and legendary and these add a plus two four six or eight depending on which level of training you have received the big difference with the proficiency system in pathana second edition and the thing that trips a lot of people up is when you are trained in a thing regardless of what that thing is and you make a check you add your level to the role this means that as you level up you get significantly better at the things that you are good at next up we have the trait system this is one of my favorite things about Pathfinder second edition traits are a keyword system that conveys a whole bunch of extra information without taking up a lot of space on the page they are Universal to whatever the trait is talking about and they really help you to interact with mechanics in a much more deep and meaningful way so if you have a spell and that spell specifically targets Undead that Undead is going to be a trait and those creatures that have the undead trait also get a bunch of other benefits that don't need to be listed in the stat block this is one of the things that trips new people up a lot because it moves a lot of the rules out of stat blocks and spells and weapons and to the traits section and this makes it a little bit more difficult when you're first learning the rules because everything isn't all in the one place but it means that as you develop an understanding for the system when you look at a rule and has a trait you know immediately all of the extra ways that that's going to interact with the rest of the system and the last big thing that I think you need to know when you're coming into Pathfinder second edition is the way that bonuses work now if you're coming from DND 5e let's say you're used to Advantage and disadvantage fairly simple fairly binary if you are getting some kind of bonus or something you're usually get an advantage if you're getting some kind of penalty it's usually disadvantage Pathfinder second edition Works a bit differently instead you get several different types of bonus you get circumstance item and Status bonuses circumstance bonuses come from the circumstance of your situation say you are a fighter and you've just raised your Shields that will give you a circumstance bonus to your AC because you're behind your Shield item bonuses come from items you are wearing or carrying so and plus one set of armor will give you a plus one item bonus to your armor class then we come to status bonuses now these come from conditions spells and other effects like that an example of this would be the hero ISM spell which gives you a plus one two attack rolls seven throws skill checks and perception checks so pretty much every bonus or penalty that you get in pf2 is gonna come from one of these three categories and the important thing to note is that you only take the best or worst from each of these categories so if you have an item that is giving you a plus one to your AC and you get another item that gives you a plus two to AC you only take the plus two you don't combine them there are a few exceptions to this but generally the rule is you only take the best penalty or bonus so now let's talk about getting into the system what do you want to buy first and what is your kind of buying path once you've gotten started in the system if you are brand new to tabletop role-playing games if you have very little experience playing any other games you want to start with the beginner box this thing is loaded with information and resources and tools to get you started it's got a small adventure to help you and your players if you're the GM get started and understand the system it's got a solo adventure for GM's it's also got reference cards and pre-built character sheets really use their friendly character sheets for helping you build your own characters and it's got a bunch of mini tokens and a map seriously this thing is super heavy and packed with content and is the perfect place to start if you're brand new to role-playing games once you've played through the starter set and are familiar with the basic rules I'd say pick up the core rulebook this is going to give you all of your information for playing the game everything you need to know about the base character classes and ancestries as well as give you some advice on being a game master and it has a primer to the world of galarion and the age of lost Omens which is the default campaign setting for pathana second edition and then if you're looking to continue your journey from the beginner box I'd recommend picking up the troubles in otari adventure path this runs you from levels two to four continues the storyline that you start started in the adventure path and gets you to grip with some of the character advancement and making a slightly higher level characters if you have played a ttrpg before or you're comfortable with kind of the core gameplay Loop of a D20 system I'd recommend you check out my biggest differences between Pathfinder second edition and DND 5e video first this video is gonna go through some of the high level differences between the two systems give you an idea of whether or not the Pathfinder system sounds interesting to you but next I'd say you want to pick up the core rulebook this is going to give you everything that you need and will be an invaluable reference resource while you're at the table now if you're coming to the game as a player the first thing I would purchase if I were you is the core rule book that's got everything you need to get started it's going to have all of your base ancestors and classes all over the rules of the game all of the magic items and spells that you're going to reference in those early games next I check out my character creation video this is where I walk through the process of making my first card partner in pf2 and it kind of goes through the character creation process filling in the character sheet all of that good stuff then if your mechanically minded player and you want more options I'd suggest picking up the advanced players guide this has got a bunch of new ancestries class options and a whole bunch of other player options to give you more flexibility and more Choice with your characters then if you are playing in the gallerion setting in the default pf2 setting I'd say pick up the Lost Omens World guide this is an introduction to the world of galarion in the age of lost Omens it goes a little bit beyond what's included in the core book and it will give you a primer on the world that you'll be playing it if your game master is running a hungry world you don't need to pick that up but it is still a really interesting read and from there there are four books at time of recording that I'd recommend that you look into them the first of these is guns and gears this introduces the Gunslinger and inventor classes and gives you a whole bunch of extra options as a player if you want to have some kind of involved in your character next I'd recommend the dark archive this is a book filled with a cultist magic and Intrigue it introduces the thormitage and psychic classes and has a bunch of information on playing one of these more occult attuned characters then we have the Book of the Dead this introduces a bunch of new playable Undead ancestries and archetypes as well as giving you a whole host of new Undead related options and then finally secrets of magic if you are a spellcaster you're going to want to get this book it introduces a whole bunch of new spells new magical items and Curiosities and it introduces a whole bunch of new magical subsystems like Ley lines and true names that can allow you to interact with magic in really unique and fun ways if you're stepping into the role of game master for Pathfinder second edition the first thing I'd recommend you do is check out this video where I talk about all the reasons why I left fifth edition behind I moved over to Pathfinder technician from the point of view of a game master next after you've picked up the core rule book and are familiar with the basic rules I'd recommend you check out the game mastery guide this contains a whole host of information for game Masters including tips on how to build your world as well as a whole load of tools for building new encounters building monsters and items and Hazards for running subsystems which are additional variant rules that can make your game even more interesting and then it also includes an NPC Gallery which is a bunch of generic creatures like noble or spy or guard that you can introduce into your world after the game master guide you're probably going to pick up one of the best areas there are three Mainline best areas at the moment all of them are filled with really unique and interesting monsters I'd start with bestiary one as that's got all the kind of classic fantasy monsters in it and then either work your way through or jump straight to best Area 3 because that has got the weirdest stuff in it and then if you're planning on playing in the age of Los domans in the world of galarion pack up the Lost Omens World guide and I'd also recommend picking up the Lost Omens travel guide the world guide gives you an overview of the kind of geopolitics of the region but the travel guide gives you that intimate look at the day-to-day life of different peoples in the world of galarion and I personally think that is much more useful for running moment-to-moment Gameplay at the table now the big thing to note about pf2 is that all of the mechanical rules are available for free on the archives of nathis all of this is going to be linked down in the description below that means that you don't actually have to buy any books I still would really recommend picking up some of the core books because being able to flick through and read them in that format is really useful especially for me but especially for like monster reference at the table being able to look at the rules freely available online on the archives of mathis is super handy if you want a character builder that's going to walk you through the options you have available to to there are things like path Builder and the Wayfarers guide links to those will be in the description below and I'm also going to put links to a whole bunch of other resources for learning the game as well as a bunch of other YouTubers who focus on different stuff to help you really immerse yourself in the system and understand what it's all about if you haven't already definitely check out my video on the biggest differences between Pathfinder second edition and DND 5e but until next time happy gaming

Channel: Icarus Games

Views: 17,700

Keywords: Dnd, d&d, dungeons and dragons, dungeonsanddragons, rpg, onenote campaign dnd, “Icarus Games”, tabletop, dmtips, OneNote DM, DM Bible, dnd 5e, D&D 5e, onenote dm bible, dungeon master tips, be a better game master, best dnd, how to play dnd, game master tips, dungeon master, DM Tips, DM advice, how to D&D, homebrew dnd, homebrew, #pathfinder2e, pathfinder, pathfinder 2e character creation, pathfinder 2e getting started

Id: IJWS_dcgDvg

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Icarus_Miniatures]

Hey folks, I'm back continuing my PF2 series and this week I wanted to put together a Gettings Started video that someone who is brand new to PF2 could use to help them find their way.

The video is broken up into a few sections:

- The first part introduces some elements of the core gameplay loop to help you understand the gameplay
- The next section is for folks who are brand new to TTRPGs and suggests which products to consider first.
- The following section is for experiences TTRPG players, and gives them advice on the purchase path to help them dive in.
- The next section is for experienced TTRPG game masters, giving them similar purchase path advice, explaining the purpose of the books.
- The final section points the viewer to further resources, videos, and channels to help them onboard onto the system.

I hope that folks find it useful and it helps them decide whether PF2 is for them.

Much love
Anto

[u/narwharkenny]

👑

[u/DelicateJohnson]

Bump. Very cool video, thank you for making it!