I had fun doing this! There's a fair chance I'll do more. ASKING FOR SUGGESTIONS FOR -Level 0 monsters -Any suggestion for looking at another monster to look at in Monster Core when it comes out, and why? I plan to cover the dragon and maybe contrast it to 5E dragons (and possibly dragons in previous editions). Any others? ADDITIONS/ERRATA: -Someone mentioned adding traps to a Kobold encounter due to their bonus to crafting traps. Great idea! Feel free to add low-level snares to an encounter (and maybe Simple Hazards but WITH CAUTION... I think damage-dealing simple hazards undersell their impact with their XP award... consider the likely impact it will have on your particular group) -I failed to mention a GREAT tactic against zombies: kiting! Because there are no opportunity attacks and because zombies are Slowed 1 they are much less effective if you don't end your turn next to them.

In regards to skeletons using military tactics: I like to pair them with a skeleton that has the Elite adjustment to act as their commander. As long as the commander exists the skeletons are more organized and use proper tactics, but once the party destroys the commander their ranks break down and much less efficient.

Megan the cat was just showing how to do a sneak attack on a distracted foe

Megan's feeling feisty today

Dear god, yes please, please do more of these. The Monsters Know What They're Doing completely changed how I DM'd 5e and I have been looking for its PF2E equivalent ever since I started using this system.

Would love to see a version of this going up through the levels! Would be cool to focus a bit more on what I see as maybe the best part of TMKWTD, the discussion of motivations and intelligence. You mention the latter a bit, especially with mindless creatures, but I think a bit more in general on how 'what the thing wants' and 'how good it is at planning to get it' should combine with its abilities to drive choices would be amazing.

16:00 he said the thing!

It makes GMing far more fun to play as well, you get to use all kinds of cool abilities. If in other fantasy RPGs an encounter with Skeletons is just a slug fest with the occasional Turn Undead/Positive Spell to take everyone down, in PF2e these skeletons can have a lot of varied abilities that will surprise the party and keep them guessing. Nothing will surprise a bunch of newbies more than if they get a head thrown at them and all of their characters get freaked out by it. Or when they land a solid hit and take one down with a single attack, only to have it turn on them with the exploding damage. And that's just low level stuff.

This is an EXCELLENT video, thank you so much! And yes, you should absolutely do more! I'm new to PF2, transitioning from 5E, and as GM, I was getting pretty bored of simply "dealing damage" to the PCs. TBH, I probably have underused some cool tactics that were available, but PF2 makes it so much easier to add flavor to combat. Thanks again, I’m definitely using this video to inspire my next encounters.

More! More!

Ronald, you really seem to excel in the Pathfinder world - I appreciate your attention to detail, especially with things like using the Remaster terminology, even as we're going over Legacy text blocks. It's something I'm always trying to do as I prep my adventures. This video has also got me thinking a lot about encounter design, so thank you!

As a DM that is just starting out running pf2e this has been such an impactful video. Thank you for the amazing content!

This is fantastic guide for novice GMs.

Super useful guidance and clarifications - thanks Ronald. Yes please - love more on this. Though haven't ported over to the Remaster yet (still running Quest for the Frozen Flame) - looking forward to the new bestiary too.

I'd love to see more videos like this @Ronald! Thank you so much for making this one. As a beginner GM I loved it.

I took the Slowed ability off of the shambler and put it on all kinds of goons or henchmen. It lets me run pretty large hordes of creatures, more than PF2e is usually designed to handle, without much trouble. Missing one action makes their turns much simpler and prevents many of the more complex tactics. If PF2e had a 4e-style "minion template", that trait would be a great fundamental building block.

This wan yet another great, informative video. I love this system, and your explanations truly help me understand the system better with each video. So thank you for what you do! And yes keep these kinds of video coming. I think one of the major reasons more don't play this system is its complexity. And your videos help reduce that challenge.

I would love to see more videos like this for higher-level monsters. Thank you for doing this one, as I am trying to learn enough Pathfinder to make a good showing at running a campaign.

Super cool video! I really like trying to understand how creatures fight knowing their abilities. I played a river drake as a skirmisher who really got on the party's nerve using terrain to their advantage, as well as their ranged attack and their reaction to both inflict damage and increase their defenses. Quite scary!

started gming pf2 recently and this is definitely nice, definitely find my self getting overwhelmed at times with whether i think creatures would flank or skill actions and forget those skill actions exist entirely at times. It's been a pretty fun time even still though, also a kinda weird party comp my players chose with thaumaturge, monk, barb, and fighter so you saying any party has the light cantrip made me chuckle a little, though the thaumaterge is the lantern one so they still have plenty of light. seeing more vids like this i do think would be nice if you don't mind doing them, though can't say i know super well what monsters would be a good idea.

Really love this approach to monster gming, Ill be trying it next game. I would like to see some more complicated monsters, spellcasters, or more complex encounters

Great video Ronald!

It would be really cool to see how you would write an adventure for pathfinder 2e, and definitely this video was very helpful for understanding how to read the statblocks. I had been running the grab ability wrong, and saying the characters were grabbed with the same action that the monster attacked with! Probably made a couple fights a lot more dangerous than they should have been!

As a new Pathfinder GM, I find this video and others like it to be incredibly helpful.

We finding the path with this one boys

This was excellent! MORE PLEASE!

Thanks a lot, this was extremely useful! I've only recently got into PF2e and your videos are very very helpful. Also, kitties :D

Loved this! I would love to see more! As a GM that switched to PF2e, monsters have been so much more fun to run. As for level 0 monsters, it is slim pickings unfortunately. Less than 30 across the 3 bestiaries. But if I had to choose, probably the Orc Brute, Lemure and maybe a giant maggot.

These are great!!!! More please

Skeletons do retain some knowledge of combat in Pathfinder lore (I think Book of the Dead mentions it), hence skeleton spellcasters being able to use magic. So, (as you have been running it) Skeleton Guards would indeed know how to flank!

More of these please! I would love to see more monster videos!

I enjoyed this! I too get ideas from TMKWTD and would like further discussions on other iconic PF monsters. As a GM, I try to change how to play monsters so they don’t feel same-y.

Love this video. There is so much focus on player options. It's nice to showcase monsters too!

Great video, I'd love to see more like this for various foes of higher levels

Would really love a GM tips series! This video is awesome to start with

Thank you for making this, you just made goblinoids way more interesting

We need a video on how Megan relies on you being distracted by producing a video before attacking! I would like to see further videos of this. Perhaps monsters with unique fighting styles or monsters who can change their operating procedure.

This was very enlightening! I've read through the first two volumes of the Bestiaries and though I had some idea of how I would run certain monsters in combat, this definitely helps clear things up for me. Especially with your step-by-step guide of going through a stat block. I completely forgot that monsters can also use skill actions so I didn't pay much attention to them, honestly.

Nicely done. I really think this will help my GMing. Just having a simple plan will lead to unique low level monster play, which I have been lacking. Thanks

Excellent video Ronald! This will be a great "Intro to GMing Pathfinder 2e" video to link to in future. A couple of small suggestions: 1. You touched on it, but the Mindless trait really should be foregrounded for GMs when considering tactics. I think your "ex-soldier skeletons remembering to flank" idea is fine, but in general mindless creatures should just walk right up to PCs even if they don't have the action economy to then strike on that turn (contrasting with low-Int beasts, which I think really should use basic tactics that represent 'real' ways beasts fight, like flanking, step, etc). 2. On the other hand, Mindless also makes creatures immune to many spells targeting Will saves, undercutting that being their weakest save. It's another reason for why RK is so helpful! 3. Following Keith's Monsters Know What They're Doing methodology, it's also good to look at the creature's Intelligence and Wisdom scores when determining how sophisticated their tactics should be, and how readily they should change their 'default routines' if that isn't working. And considering these stats, the circumstances behind the encounter, and the creature's flavour when determining if/when the creatures will try to run away to avoid dying. 4. For future videos on this theme, I'd love to see you showcase a 3rd-4th level creature as (a) a solo boss (or mini-boss with a minion or two) for low-level PCs, and then again as a group of PL-2 creatures against higher level PCs.

Good video, TMKWTD is a cornerstone of post-D&D 4e encounter design and I'd love to see more videos following in its footsteps.

Yes we want more of these! 😊

I'm new to pf2e, having come over from 5e. Please keep up with these monster videos. I learned a few things I didn't know in this one.

I've played pf2e,pf1e, some 5e, pbta games, fate, symbaroum, warhammer fantasy RPG, and the ease of this systems encounter building is one of its greatest strengths for me. I DEEPLY struggle with prep, but even at my worst headspace, when I can barely get out of bed. I can still get 2 encounters ready in half a hour before my players arrive.

Video for GM, love that! Need a video on how to end a fight (other than fight to the death). How to handle the foes try to escape etc

This is great! please more!

This video is great. I’m a first time GM preparing for the beginners box which is very kobold heavy. Being aware of the ‘skill’ actions ahead of time will be very useful!

Excellent video. I almost exclusively dm and this is right up my alley. I would like to see a video on building challenging encounters

Great video and would love to see more. I currently am running abom vaults and thinking about "what would a cultist do?" Each turn.

If I had to GM for DnD, I think I'd hate it to be honest. Pathfinder feels so fun to GM, combat is always interesting for me and I always enjoy finding cool monsters to throw at my players as some penultimate boss.

Positive comment

I think one of the best monsters I like to put against newer players are "grapplers" like the giant maggot. If the player go in and attack it they are at risk of getting grabbed and the gnaw flesh action inflict damage on a reflex save so they can use it without incurring to map. One of my fighters in AV ended his grabbed because he wanted to keep doing damage instead of escaping and it got hit by 3 consecutive gnaw flesh and went down from full, next fight he abused the abysmal speed of the maggot to hit it and then move away and finished and killed them whiteout taking much damage

Love this

Let's make a new series of this! I would enjoy you revisit every classics and new monsters for Pathfinder 2e from -1 to 20 ! I am personnaly running an homebrew campaign versus Mites (& insects) and Velsarc within Ustalav, would love to see how you would play them.

This is a great video!!! Thanks a lot!! Any possibility to make it a series until level 20+ creatures?

Megan the cat was just showing how to do a sneak attack on a distracted foe. 😼

Nice

Very cool

Very good video, thank you! I have a suggestion for another video - how would you go about creating / modifying a custom monster? Example: I just started running a homebrew 2e campaign and one of the extended quests / arcs revolves around a Fey Prince who travels the world for fun and always somehow ends up causing trouble. For example, he gave an innkeeper a couple of cockatrice eggs to help increase his egg production and he told him to keep them “well fed”. Unfortunately, the innkeeper couldn’t keep up, the cockatrices hatched and were completely ravenous, slaughtering and consuming all his chickens, cows and other livestock, even attacking him. Now his back yard is overrun by them, and knowing it’s only a question of time until the beasties escape, he has asked the party to sort out the mess. All the party know there’s some “new chicken breed” too aggressive to keep as livestock that needs ‘taking care of’. My problem is, the party is only lvl. 1 and the standard cockatrice is too powerful. Especially the DC20 fort save is harsh, my players will absolutely crit fail it and become permanently petrified. I was thinking about reducing the effect to simply apply a non- stacking Slowed 1 for 1 turn but I also don’t want the party to face just one monster - the inn’s back yard is meant to be overrun by them after all. So ideally I’m looking for some sort of ‘young cockatrice’ stat block, ideally at lvl. -1 but I’m not sure how to go about modifying the standard cockatrice’s stats to make the encounter somewhere between easy and challenging. The objective is for the party to have fun, no one should be dying during this encounter. The idea for the quest arc is that the players will have to fix several ‘errors of judgement’ of the mysteries stranger, none explicitly ‘evil’ but perhaps misguided and definitely inconvenient, before finally realising what he is and either returning him to his fey Elder father or helping him start a new life in the True World. How would you go about it? I’m sure other GM’s out there would also appreciate your help and a glimpse into your way of thinking.

as someone who loves Kobolds and their lore and and ecology and stuff, i can tell that Kobolds would prefer Skirmishing / Guerrilla fighting and they want to incorporate traps, a Kobold would only want to instigate melee if they need to stall the target from advancing or if their current tactic require someone to "Sacrifice" them self

I would love to see about low level boss creatures! The cutthroat boss in the aldori manor in kingmaker was a real challenge for me to run because her big axe attack seemed so likely to massive damage any of my players to instant death, so i didn't use it when i could have. Felt weird about it afterwards

Great content Ronald! I do feel like something important was missed with the kobold - the Craft Traps skill. Any GM running kobolds on their home turf really should have part of the XP budget reserved for lots of traps & snares. Continuing with the theme of the Kobold Warrior, I feel like homebrewing a low-level snare that causes Off Guard on a failed save would be completely on-theme. It's exactly the kind of thing a kobold tribe would use to maximize their advantages.

Yes more please. Please do one with creatures with spells

While I love the idea about doing this at a level by level basis, it makes more sense to group them by type.

If I hadn't already liked and subscribed, you'd get it just for the cat. So now you get a comment as well.

Would be cool how to read/use a monster as a boss, maybe how to think hazards to create lair actions

@21:55 Flanking isn't instinctive, it's learned, and if your undead is mindless... 🙂

Level 0? Orc Brute; Giant Worker Bee; Dream Spider.

Yes I like

I'd love to see low-level commented example combats actually. I struggled as a GM to make good combats when we started pf2e because I had bad tactics and the players would one-shot all -1 enemies due to their low hp (looking at you Valero).

Are the "monster abilities" like disgusting pustules present on the monster sheets in Foundry VTT? I can't seem to find them, but when I search the compendium for disgusting pustules, I do find it.

Merci

Dang, new vids from you AND Seth today! Edit: I have the -5 INT skelly men stand in place and ONLY attack when a player tries to walk by. Or alternatively, they only shoot at one square as a player passes through it. You know... because they're mindless.

Would you recommend the book even if it’s targeted at DnD monsters? Is there an analogue book for Pathfinder monsters?

Also would love a 5e vs pf2e monster comparisons

Are there rules for making your own monsters from scratch and improving existing monsters? Those two activities are where the current D&D Monster Manual fails the hardest.

You skimmed over the difference between "vitality healing" and "vitality damage". Not the same thing, although the Heal spell does both.

Moar pls.

Zombies and skeletons should be immune to piercing. Stabbing is used to make one bleed and they are bloodless.

Never understand where the trope of skeletons are more intelligent and can use weapons where zombies are just rotted mindless carcasses came from. Justice for my fleshy boyz