Pathfinder 2e Basics: Fast Start & Introduction | How to Play Pathfinder 2e | Taking20

welcome Adventures it's here it's finally here Pathfinder 2nd edition is finally out of its play test and we can now crack open our Pathfinder to Ecore rule books and best theory and jump into the newest edition of Pathfinder from Paizo if you're watching this video you may be completely new to tabletop role-playing games and a few friends have invited you to play this weekend or you might be an experienced Pathfinder first edition player or even a Dungeons & Dragons 5e player who is just curious to see if Pathfinder 2e is worth taking a closer look at regardless this video is meant to be a little jumpstart for people interested in learning how to play a Pathfinder 2nd edition so I'll be going over some of the basics for Pathfinder 2e and I'll try my best to move at a fast enough pace for you experienced t20 players as well as cover enough of the basics of the game for you new players out there so you'll be up and gaming in no time alright to start off let's talk briefly about what second edition means for all you new players in short this is the second edition of the Pathfinder role-playing game if you want to play the newest version of the game this is it you do not need to have any experience with the original first edition to play Pathfinder 2e and you will not need any of the previous editions books to play and game with your friends if you are just learning how to play you'll want to pick up your own copy of the core rulebook which I have linked down in the description box below so you'll know you're getting the absolute newest version of the game with that link also it's been about a decade since the first edition of Pathfinder was released so Pathfinder 2nd edition should be around for quite some time and the core rulebook is the very first book and in most cases the only book players will need to play otherwise you can usually borrow a book from your group but honestly you're gonna want your own copy trust me ok let's shift gears into mechanics for all you experienced d20 players out there not a lot has changed from what you should expect with the core 6 abilities each character has a race now called ancestries like human elf dwarf background which will help you describe your characters past as well as some of their skills a class which describes in short how your character will act in combat like fighter wizard or Alchemist and six abilities that will help you describe your character's physical and mental capabilities strength Constitution dexterity intelligence charisma and wisdom now I'll cover a full character creation process in a future video and if you're a brand new player the process is outlined in the core rulebook starting on page 19 but I do want to highlight a few key things that experienced players will want to take note of first there are now six core ancestries in pathfinder - e dwarf elf gnome halfling goblin yes goblin is now a core race and human each of these has a few sub races now called Heritage's for example the Goblin has the iron goblin snowgoblin etc and if you're wondering where the half work and the half elf went don't worry they're still in the game they've just been moved to the human heritage section so they're absolutely still playable races each heritage gives you a minor boost or skill set but what is really interesting is the options as in the new ancestry feats which come in small pools for you to pick from as you level up for example going back to our goblin ancestry we can see that we have nine different ancestry feats to pick from at level one like goblin lore and jump tinker a new ancestry that unlocks at level five and a new pair at both level 9 and level 13 all of these may be taken regardless of which goblins sub race or heritage you choose for your goblin character also the backgrounds okay I'm gonna try to stay calm here with my personal bias but there are a massive 35 backgrounds for you to choose from and each will give you a set of skill boosts usually a feet or two and unfortunately in my opinion also give you two ability boosts which increase your base abilities ie strength decks etc usually these ability boosts are a choice between two abilities and then a free choice like the nomads which gives you a boost to either Constitution or wisdom and an ability boost of your choice personally I see no reason why a gay master would have issue with you eliminating the hard choice in favor of just to boost of your choice you can create the character you really want to make with a background that you know makes sense for roleplay but that's just my two cents beyond that health and hit points are calculated for your character like star finder with both your class and your ancestry having their own pools so for example the Goblin gives you six HP and the Dorf gives you ten while each would add eight more points if they both chose Bard for their class as you level up you only gain new hit points based on your class this is a great mechanic in my opinion that gives first level characters a bit more survivability and then naturally tapers off as you begin to level let's jump over to classes Pathfinder second addition has a total of twelve core classes The Alchemist which many have been happy to seeing it added as a core class the Barbarian bard cleric champion formerly known as the Paladin druid fighter monk Ranger rogue sorcerer and wizard if you're a brand new player to tabletop role-playing games and have no idea what each of these do don't panic I always suggest that you simply speak with your game master and I promise they will be more than happy to help point you in the right direction just explain to them how you want your character to behave in combat do you want to be sneaky shoot a bow cast powerful magic spells heal and support your friends whatever you envision just explain that to your game master and they'll be able to help you make your choice now a couple of key things to note here as you select your class just like ancestries and ancestry feats you have your own dedicated list of class feats divided into pools with different level requirements that you must meet before you have access to take them each class gets access to a new class feet at every even level in the game and most classes also get to select a class feet at level one but not all so for example the monk gets to choose a class feed at level one and you can see that they have eight different class feeds to choose from when they each level - they may select another class feed and they may now choose either a class feet from the remaining seven from their level one pool or they may take one of the five class feets from their second level pool either choice is fine the other small item to note here is each class comes with a key ability now this key ability defines the classes most important ability score and gives it an additional ability boost this is in essence the ability that will define any dc's for your character like intelligence for the wizard which will help determine your wizard's spell DC or difficulty check and yes some classes give you a choice between two abilities so fighters can be strength or decks based now Before we jump into skills the first thing we need to talk about is the biggest mechanic change from Pathfinder first edition and one that DD 5e players will have recognized Pathfinder to ease proficiency bonus system in short the proficiency bonus is calculated as your character's level plus your training inset check this proficiency bonus will be applied to most things in Pathfinder 2nd edition like attack rolls and skill checks for example to be clear this is not a flat proficiency like DD 5 e as in in addition to your level you might be untrained trained expert master or legend at some things and not others the modifiers for each level of training increases by two as you become more proficient so untrained would be zero trained would be plus two expert plus four and so on each class and background will give skills weapon groups like simple weapons and martial weapons for example saving throws defenses or types of armor and even spell is like a cult divine arcane and primal for which your character is trained in or even an expert in in addition to a number of free skills plus your intelligence modifier for example the alchemist is trained in crafting and a number of skills equal to three plus your character's intelligence mod while the Ranger is trained in nature survival and a number of skills equal to four plus your maude taking a deeper dive into the alchemist we can also see that they start the game as trained in perception for saving throws they are experts in fortitude and reflect saving throws while they are trained in will saves they of course get the aforementioned skills that we just talked about while they are trained in simple weapons alchemical bombs and unarmed attacks they are also trained in light armor and unarmored defense now don't be overwhelmed here the calculation for your individual proficiencies is pretty straightforward and there is ample room on the character sheet to list each of these so you won't have to add them up in the middle of the game the only annoyance is that each time you level up you'll probably have to change your sheet quite a bit as you are leveling but unless you're gaining a new trained level in something you'll pretty much just be increasing each number by one okay let's move on to skills if you're new to tabletop role-playing games skills are additional tasks that your character might be skilled in so exactly what it sounds like for example your character might be skilled in acrobatics or medicine or stealth when your character attempts to do something in a game that is uncertain like picking a lock the game master might call for a skill check from your character and set a DC or difficulty class and in order to succeed your role including any modifiers from your skills must either meet or exceed the target number it's really that simple there are a total of 18 skills in Pathfinder 2nd edition and each of them are calculated the exact same way each skill will have an Associated ability with it like strength or dexterity that will be added to the proficiency bonus that we just talked about now because the proficiency bonus takes into account your characters total level that means that your characters level will actually have a significantly higher impact on your skill modifiers as you begin to reach higher levels and a high level character that might even be untrained in a skill like stealth for example might still have a better stealth modifier than a low level expert however the caveat is that most skills have additional mechanical advantages that your character can do with them but only once you have officially trained in them for example deception roles are usually called for by the game master when you wish to lie to someone oftentimes a guard in my experience while anyone can attempt to lie create a diversion try to impersonate someone with a quick disguise kit attempting to be purposefully deceitful in combat with a feint maneuver so misleading as to catch that enemy flat-footed can only be done by those who have trained themselves in the art of deception another example is crafting which many people can attempt to repair their gear out in the field with a crafting check but only those trained in crafting can attempt to craft as a means of earning additional income during downtime now as a final note wrapping up the proficiency bonus skills and to touch on attack roles which I'll dive into next in addition to the natural increase your proficiency bonus in these checks that you will get from just you know leveling up there will be plenty of opportunity to increase your training levels as your character progresses most classes will naturally have built-in class features that will increase your weapon skills though not all at the same rate and even allow you to take a skill fee which ranged from just becoming trained and a new skill to new interesting things you can do with the skills that you are already trained in and finally each class allows you to gain a skill increase at third level and every two levels thereafter depending on your character's level you might use this to gain a new skill rank one up to expert master or even legendary again guys don't be overwhelmed once you understand the proficiency system you will understand 70% of how your character works for experienced d20 players you'll understand about 92% of the basics of Pathfinder to e ok let's shift over to combat first off the Pathfinder to e combat system is its crown jewel in my opinion it's the thing that makes it Pathfinder Pathfinder tui has a three action per turn economy that governs the things that each character and monster can do in combat during their turn in general most things will fall under the category of a basic action like stride which is basically the move action take cover and strike which is basically an attack so gone are the days of move actions and attack actions full round actions etc now everything is pretty much a single basic action on your turn you may perform up to three basic actions in any order you wish so naturally you could move attack move move move take cover attack attack attack or attack move attack etc additionally some actions your characters will take will use more than a single action and spells are a great example of this as some spells can be cast in a single action while others may take two or even three actions to cast each action will have a symbol next to it that will dictate how many actions are required to perform that particular action also there are two additional types of actions that do not use a basic action the first is the free action which allows your character to basically drop something or delay your turn until another character acts and doesn't require you to spend any actions to perform the second is the reaction which is something your character gets to do in response to another event during combat another very interesting game mechanic choice that is worth drawing some attention to is that shields in combat no longer just work but rather your character must use an action to raise their shield without a doubt this will be a very polarizing mechanic for experienced d20 players but after having played a game or two I personally didn't feel like it gimped my character in any way and to be honest I kind of enjoyed the nuance of deciding if I wanted another strike or if I wanted the defensive boost now let's talk about the strike action or as it may commonly be referred to as the attack action and attack roles there are three types of attack roles your character can make - your character may take with a strike action a melee attack role and a ranged attack role and then of course we have the spell attack role which your character will need to make if of course a spell calls for it for you new players out there the attack role must be made first then if it meets or beats the targets AC or armor class you will then make your damage role against them so it's always did it hit if yes then you roll damage to determine your character's attack role bonus for melee attacks you'll add your strength modifier your proficiency bonus based on the weapon group that you are attacking with and then any other bonuses or penalties like if you have a magic sword for example additionally if you are instead using a finesse weapon that's to say a weapon that specifically has the finesse train you may choose to use your dexterity modifier instead of your strength mod for ranged attacks it works the same way with the exception that you will simply use your dexterity modifier and forecasters who are making spell attack rolls you will follow the exact same formula except instead of dexterity or strength you will use the ability modifier for whatever your classes key ability is so intelligence for Wizards charisma for sorcerers etc also if your character is attacking with the strike action more than once and around you will need to take into account the multiple attack penalty simply put the first time you attack it around this doesn't matter you simply make your attack however on your second attack you will make that same attack at a minus 5 penalty and then for your third attack this will be at a minus 10 if you happen to be wielding a weapon with the agile property your penalties would then be reduced to a minus 4 and minus 8 respectfully did I just say respectfully respectively now let's jump over to damage to determine the damage that your character will deal on a successful attack the calculations are very simple again you'll have plenty of room on your character sheet to mark these down so once you equip a weapon this this won't change very much for melee damage roles you add the damaged eye of the weapon you're using plus your strength modifier and then any miscellaneous bonuses or penalties like a magic sword for range attack rolls you take the damage dive that you roll if you are using a ranged weapon with the thrown property like a javelin you will also add your strength mod so pretty logical and if you have one of the two propulsion weapons the sling or the halfling sling staff you actually add in half your strength mod instead but again that's only two weapons in the core rulebook for spells you guessed it you just deal whatever damage the spell says unless you have a feat or feature that says otherwise next up we need to talk about how crits or criticals work in pathfinder to weak critical successes and failures work a bit differently than they have in other d20 systems the short and sweet of it is this there are no more natural one automatic critical failure and no more natural 20 being an automatic success now everything in the game works on a simple 10 sliding scale did you beat a skill check DC by 10 or more you critically succeeded did you fail by 10 or more that's a critical failure pretty much everything in the game works like this attack role saving throws skill checks etc this gives every check in the game for outcomes did you do well did you do bad did you do extremely well or did you do extremely bad in most cases this will double or have the effect as an example on attack roles a critical success means that you would roll your normal damage adding in any modifiers for strength then simply double the total and that's the new amount of damage that you'll deal conversely if you critically fail a reflex saving throw against a fireball spell your character will now take double that damage for that critical failure normal damage for a regular failure half damage for a success and no damage for a critical success and finally let's talk a bit about death dying hero points and resting because they're all kind of falling into the same bucket when you take damage that drops your characters hit point total two or below zero your life is set to zero and you immediately move in initiative order to one spot in front of whoever damaged you to get to that zero next you gain the dying one condition if whatever attacked you or damaged you was a critical hit or a critical failure for a save like that fireball we mentioned you instead gain lead dying to condition each turn you will attempt a recovery check which will either reduce or increase your dying condition reducing by two for a critical success reducing by one for a success increasing by one for a failure and of course increasing by two for a critical failure if your character reaches dying for you die a recovery check is made as a flat check or a check made with absolutely no modifier aka no bonuses from Constitution or any penalties it's just a straight-up d20 role the DC is simply 10 plus your current dying level so it will always be an 11 a 12 or 13 if you manage to reduce your dying level back to zero your character remains at zero health and is unconscious any magical healing that restores you to even one hit point will remove your dying levels and wake you up now a couple of caveats to cover real quick first whenever you lose the dying condition you gain a new condition called wounded now don't worry this doesn't affect your a character's ability to fight however if your character is attacked or takes damage so that they drop and are dying again their wound level increases their new dying level so if my character drops and gets back up he'll now have wounded one when he takes another bite attack from a monster and drops again he now starts at dying two because of his one wound level if he gets back up he'll now be at wounded two and any critical hit against him that reduces him to 0 would outright kill him now there are ways to get rid of your wounded condition most commonly resting and medicine checks so these are not permanent and then there is the last way to recover from the dying condition with hero points okay if you've played Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition hero points will remind you a bit of inspiration hero points are simple and can be used in two ways first if your character has a hero point they may spend it whenever they want to reroll a d20 that they've are roll you always take the second result however so a bit different for you 5e players used to inspiration and advantage secondly if you are dying you can spend all of your hero points if of course you have at least one to return to one hit point as part of a heroic recovery if you recover from dying with a heroic recovery you do not gain or increase your wounded condition typically hero points are given out if the players do something cool heroic whatever and are at the game masters discretion usually each player will be given one at the start of a new session and unspent hero points will be lost between games so use them or lose them if you're a brand new player to role-playing games and you feel like this sounds a little bit subjective it is I'd recommend talking to your game master about how they plan to handle hero points in your games because this will vary from table to table and with that you should have a good understanding of the basics of how to play Pathfinder 2nd edition did I cover everything here not even close after all the Pathfinder to e core rulebook is 640 pages but if you're new don't let that intimidate you first off the Pathfinder core rulebook is basically a dungeon master guide and a player's handbook in 1 as the last two big chapters are mostly there for game masters and secondly just focus on the basic mechanics and the things that your individual character does your game master and gaming group will be there to help you with any questions so learn your character and focus on having fun and you'll be in the swing of things in no time down in the description below I have included links to all of the new Pathfinder to ebooks including their new adventure path age of ashes which I'm about to run for my patrons full disclosure if you use any of those links to make any purchases on Amazon within 24 hours I receive a small Commission which goes a really long way to helping out the channel and I would certainly appreciate it I of course want to give a massive thank you to all of my amazing patrons over at welcome adventures Calm it's because of you guys I can keep doing this and so for that I'm just so incredibly grateful if you like what I do here and you want to support more content like this while grabbing some own rewards for yourself like new maps or jumping in a game with me jumping in a one-on-one meeting so we can talk about maybe some of these rules that you're still a little uncertain on you can do all of those things over at welcome adventures.com if this is your first time here and you love role-playing games as much as I do or you're learning to love role-playing games as much as I do I would love to have you subscribe every week I put out new videos on GM tips player tips tutorials and more so if that sounds like something you might be interested in just hit that subscribe button down below and come join us thank you guys so much for watching my name is Cody and may your games be filled with awesome memories and even better friends I'll catch you guys next time you

Channel: Taking20

Views: 345,492

Keywords: Taking20, Taking 20, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, Pathfinder 2e basics, Pathfinder 2nd edition, Knights of Everflame, Pathfinder 2nd Edition First Impressions, pathfinder kingmaker, How to Play Pathfinder 2e, Pathfinder 2e review, Pathfinder 2e Skills, Pathfinder 2e Feats, pathfinder 2e core rulebook, Pathfinder 2e classes, Pathfinder 2e alchemist, Pathfinder 2e character creation, pathfinder 2e intro, Pathfinder 2e Guide, dungeons and dragons 5th edition, Pathfinder Hero Points

Id: sP1HIWyv8DI

Length: 25min 38sec (1538 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 06 2019