PF2e 17 - Epilogue and What's Next

Edit: Whoops, this one got pushed out before it was done. Now it’s been finished and reposted.

Well, that didn’t end how I wanted it to.

The game was ramping up to it’s climax, but my computer decided to put a hold on that. A hard drive issue caused Windows to no longer load, and from there, I wasn’t able to recover my Foundry games. I lost all of them, including all my tester games I made for various systems, my forever-in-progress Numenera hexcrawl, LANCER, Shadowrun…

Fortunately, the last 3 were made so long ago that I had a backup made from when Foundry changed versions so I may be able to reinstate them.

Pathfinder however…

Hooboy.

Let’s treat this more like a wrap on the game and a mini review of Pathfinder 2nd edition.

Pathfinder 2e as a system has it’s strengths. It’s way more streamlined than the first game. The three action per turn economy lets you do some interesting things and works as a counterbalance for some sorts of actions. The classes seem to get some interesting toys to play with, in varying quality.

But it also has the issue that move-move-attack doesn’t feel good still. They haven’t cracked that nut. Move-attack in Lancer felt more fulfilling. The party was comprised of a Druid, a Thaumaturge, and a Magus, who switched to a Ranger character. Turns for the last two (three) went like this.

• Thaumaturge: ID enemy, Move, Move.
• Magus: Ranged spellstrike, Recharge spellstrike
• Ranger: Declare prey, Twinshot, Shot.

No fewer than ten combats started with those exact moves. The druid had more freedom and flexibility but of course, they were a spellcaster so naturally they have more options.

I did not like GMing the game. I didn’t like searching through statblocks or using the various web tools to try to sort through a catalog of 1300 monsters for something that fit. I never got comfortable enough to generate up a new creature, so I never made anything new. DCs felt simultaneously too high and too low. To even remotely challenge my party I had to go with repeated Severe encounters, but then it turned into rocket tag. Otherwise they annihilated everything with a lower XP budget than that.

Glad to be done with the game. Not mad that I ran it but don’t plan on running it again.

What I am looking forward to though, is our next game. I have wrangled back in a player from my Shadowrun and Lancer games to play in this one. World building and character building starts this week for a Fabula Ultima game, which I am stoked about.

So keep your eyes peeled here for that, when I get around to posting journals and recaps.