Pathfinder Second Edition Readthrough: Example of play, guest-starring undead Venom

Disclaimer: I was not a fan of the PF 2e dev diaries, or of the play-test. This does not mean I'm going to do nothing but bash this book, and I legitimately hope to be pleasantly surprised, but keep in mind this read-through is likely to be very biased. A fair bit of it is also for comedic purposes. It is by no means a declaration that people should not play PF 2e, that people are wrong for enjoying it, or anything along those lines

Example of Play

So, time to see some PF 2e in action as described by the makers before the majority of the rules are even known except an overview. I foresee no problems at all arising from this. Anyway we start with the group, which is three people......

Are you kidding me 2e? My brief bit about how all the art only featured three characters was a joke, not a challenge to embrace it! Then again, maybe because this party is the classic Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard except there is no Wizard, maybe they just removed the Wizard class from the core rulebook. Anyway, on to the actual play.

The group is going into a dark crypt stinking of rotten flesh, presumably the lair of a necromancer, and the first thing they encounter is a trap, specifically a tripwire. The group detects that, so we don't get whatever brilliant trap I was sure it was, where they fight what the example tells us is an undead although it isn't willing to tell us what type of undead. Given it's weird coloration, pointy teeth, and overly large tongue, I am going to guess it's an Alien Symbiote possessing the corpse of Eddie Brock. The fighter rolls a 2 for initiative but gets an 8, so either a Dex fighter or initiative score for BDF's finally got buffed. The rogue actually uses her stealth for her initiative because she was hiding at the beginning of combat, which is an interesting change-up. The various characters attack, or try to identify the creature. It is a ghast, and through this we get some first looks at concrete rules changes. For example, Sickened went from a -2 to -1, which...okay, still need to see math but might suggest number compression. And this is immediately thrown out the window as the Ghast attacks and it's base attack bonus is +11, while our presumably level 2 party is rocking +9 hit bonus on the Rogue. However damage has barely been touched as the fighter's critical with his longsword does...5 from the d8+4 Str , doubled from the crit. Okay, so to-hit numbers are inflated, debuff numbers are deflated, and damage numbers are about the same (It doesn't state what the Ghast rolled for damage but it's within a Ghast's abilities). Also HP has been buffed? It at least has been for the Ghast, which took 27 damage and survived when the 1e Ghast can get 24 HP maximum.

Anyway, the example ends right before we enter the second round, leaving me a bit confused why it didn't go further because only covering the initial round of combat, but whatever, it's enough to whet my appetite to just what the heck is going on in this book. Anyway, on to the Character Creation process and Ancestries and some actual, solid crunch.