Watch a LEVEL 20 BOSS FIGHT in Pathfinder 2e!

Watch a LEVEL 20 BOSS FIGHT in Pathfinder 2e! | Does high-level play WORK?!

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Inconceivable! Level 20 isn’t supposed to work in Pathfinder or D&D! Let's talk about the problems of high-level play in RPGs, then do a Level 20 combat in Pathfinder 2e and look at how it addresses those problems. (Running time: 86 minutes)
CORRECTIONS (can never be perfect can I?):
*The rules explicitly let the GM allow a character to use a Reaction before their first turn of combat, depending on circumstances.
*The Fighter resists slashing 4, which affects the Claw attacks.
*The Rogue's debilitating strikes did not deal +2d6 precision damage immediately: they debuffed the dragon so that the Rogue's future attacks until the end of her next turn did +2d6 precision damage.
*The wizard at 52 10 cannot Dismiss the punishing winds spell (a spell must explicitly allow you to Dismiss it); fortunately, it requires him to Sustain it for it not to end at the end of his turn anyway. (And he didn't have a 4th action to Dismiss it!)
*By default, polymorph spells (like Avatar) prevent spellcasting, but the rules say the GM may still allow spellcasting regardless.
CALL TO ACTION! :(
The Haste spell specifies that your 4th action must be a Strike action or the "Stride" action, which indeed is different from the Fly action. This has to be errata'd. Because, by the same token, since some characters with an animal companion can have their companion "Stride or Strike" when it's not Commanded that turn, then a bird companion needs to land on the ground and waddle to move then. Makes zero sense. And I see little value in limiting Haste to only land Speeds. Started a thread about it here, where I propose allowing Haste to be Heightened to include other Speed types: / this_rule_needs_to_change
VIEW THE CHARACTER SHEETS AT:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
0:00 - Introduction:
1:34 - High-level play in other systems
5:38 - What to expect
7:22 - LEVEL 20 COMBAT
7:30 - Building an epic fight!
8:50 - Party preparations
12:52 - Dragon’s frightful presence
15:42 - Dragon breath
18:14 - Rogue’s super-invisibility
26:49 - Heightened haste
32:00 - Legendary Battle Medicine
35:26 - Scare to Death
40:23 - Felling Strike
49:16 - Aid
52:17 -Incarnate spells!
1:02:06 - Avatar
1:14:21 - Closing Statement
1:14:52 - Why high-level PF2e works
1:20:28 - Too complex?
1:22:36 - Bonus bonus
LIKE & SUBSCRIBE! I'm a lawyer who teaches and runs tabletop RPGs (Pathfinder, D&D, Starfinder) for kids and teens, making videos and hosting events related to TTRPGs and board games.
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LEARN PATHFINDER 2E! From The Rules Lawyer:
BEGINNER BOX Demonstration + Review: • REVIEW + DEMONSTRATION...
It's Easy to Learn! A First Combat: • Pathfinder 2nd Edition...
Character Creation - A Breakdown: • Understand Character C...
A Second Combat: • Martials and clerics a...
Tactics & Strategies to Beat Pathfinder 2e's Tough Fights, Part 1: • This Ain't D&D: Tactic...
Tactics & Strategies, Part 2: • Let's Test the "Illusi...
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@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

At the PF2E subreddit, user Aeolas said very well what the experience of GMing PF2 is like. These points resonate doubly so when it comes to high-level play. Here is their post in full, which prompted a lively discussion: From www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/qbe6cz/the_one_thing_about_pf2e_that_makes_it_impossible/ THE ONE THING ABOUT PF2E THAT MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO GO BACK TO D&D5E IS... The Combat Encounter Design rules. I've no idea what I was missing in my life. I'd played D&D5E since the launch of the core 3 books, and I consider myself a pretty good DM, but never once did the combat design rules there work for me. Instead, I learned to tread into the realm of adjusting numbers on the fly, lifting HP just a little higher to draw out the tension a little longer, letting a minion be quashed a little sooner when it wasn't of use, all in the name of letting my players have fun. But it was work for me, it felt like work, and by the end of my years in 5E, it felt like I was going through all this work, planning encounters haphazardly since I knew I could just adjust it on the fly, just to tell the story that I was eager to tell and that my players were eager for. Few weeks ago, I started Menace Under Otari, and I used the PF2 design rules website. 6 Giant Rats against 6 PCs. Moderate. I did my best. I flanked when I could. And by the end, it felt like a moderate fight. Next up. Giant Spider, and I added 2 spider swarms as per the rules. Again. I did the best I could. My spider swarms covered as many people as they could. My giant spider died to a lucky crit. Once again, it felt... moderately difficult. I didn't realise it until later, when I was reflecting on how the session went, that I realised that I got to have fun in combat. I could actually try my best! Use tactics! Flank! Aim for as many PCs as I could! I'd spent so many years pulling punches and softening blows that I'd forgotten what it really means to PLAY a game. What a blessing!

@godsdonttalk597 Жыл бұрын

Some minutes into the fight, it seems I've got massive respect for the amount of care you've put into terrorizing that one level 7 villager.

@_claymore Жыл бұрын

I think the dragon had a personal vendetta against that one villager. and the villager had a deep hatred for that dragon, given his recklessness in trying to fight it. maybe the dragon called his sister ugly or something.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG Жыл бұрын

There's a certain famous fantasy story involving a common person single-handedly taking down a dragon, and I wanted to make a point that that was NOT possible in Pathfinder 2e. In a system where the design allows for reliable encounter balancing, there are some downsides (for some people) as well. A low-level creature is not a threat to a higher-level one! But that also creates a situation where lower-level PCs MUST work together to take down a higher-level foe!

@Oddigan Жыл бұрын

I cheered for that villager when he rolled a natural 20, completely forgetting that it only raises the degree of success by 1 instead of being an automatic hit. Poor fella.

@Llortnerof Жыл бұрын

@@Oddigan Yeah, big difference to D&D. An action can actually be completely impossible to succeed at... or impossible to fail since the same goes the other way. All without even needing to go outside of the actual rules.

@Garahs Жыл бұрын

I think something is lost from making it impossible for a low level character to have any kind of impact on a higher level monster. There are multiple stories based around this kind of event happening. A natural 20 should be a hit. Maybe for half damage or something.

@sheldonlarmond6217 2 жыл бұрын

Man I just got really invested in this fictional battle run by one person

@aaronarndt5956 Жыл бұрын

They try to intimidate the dragon, fail, and then it breathes fire on them. I can just imagine them trying to scare a red dragon by looking tough and then getting toasted for their puny efforts!

@_claymore Жыл бұрын

another thing to keep in mind for newer players: you are watching one person not only control one enemy (the dragon), but also four additional player characters, all by himself! that is a lot to keep track of. usually the four heroes would obviously be controlled by their respective players, which makes keeping track of every buff and the overall situation way easier and way less complicated - also keep in mind that five people at the table can remind each other of modifiers and such too, which makes everything flow better.

@yagamifire7861 Жыл бұрын

Yes but that should also necessarily massively slow down the speed of everything as well Which is a main problem with high level combat

@playerkit Жыл бұрын

@@yagamifire7861 You think one person controlling FIVE units at once will be FASTER than them being played individually? Idk how you've come to that conclusion.

@justsomeguywithatophat6248 2 жыл бұрын

Whoa, that last breath weapon almost turned the tide! When dealing with a higher level creatures, it only takes one turn for things to go south, scary.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Yes! In retrospect it showed that even when the monster was down to ~1% hit points, it was still not a foregone conclusion. Whereas in other systems it probably could've been "called" long before. A string of more bad luck was not out of the question, given its 53 AC!

@chancylegtron1747 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG To be perfectly fair, Poog made a really bad play by using goblin song instead of using a 2-action heal on Valeros, who was quite damaged ! But even so, good luck on the dragon could have turned the tide very fast if for example Poog went down at the start of combat. Anyways, really exciting and interesting video !

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

@@chancylegtron1747 I think you're right. I think I lost sense of what was optimal there in order to get "in character" lol

@Ifusaso9087 Жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG to be fair, that's a valid way to play the game and should be (is) acceptably within balance tolerance

@Minandreas213 2 жыл бұрын

Another excellent video man. I'm shocked by how well you ran 4 level 20 PCs and a Dragon at the same time while juggling all their effects and bonuses.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Just know that I did a lot of planning and note-taking for this tho

@KnightsofLastCall 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah.... so this was obviously awesome; nice showcase of a truly epic fight! I love the full breakdown of all the abilities - definitely a lot of work to setup but I must say I am pumped to play more high level PF2! I will note that it’s up to the GM on whether a creature can use their reaction prior to their first turn in combat. “The GM determines whether you can use reactions before your first turn begins, depending on the situation in which the encounter happens.” Seeing as how the party was clearly prepared and waiting for the dragon, I probably would’ve given Valeros that first round block :)

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

You are right! This was brought up and I added this to the description. (Love your channel btw! My PF2 Rise of the Runelords group is also at the same point of the AP as you are)

@clowncoupon5821 2 жыл бұрын

For people who aren't good at arithmetic, when applying damage/healing, you can shift click the buttons in chat to apply modifiers. So here if an attack does cold damage, select the dragon then shift click the damage button in chat and type 25. It will add it on. For resistances, just use a minus sign.

@erikthiele289 2 жыл бұрын

WOW! As a Foundry DM this is the most helpful comment in here :D thanks for the heads up!

@ederys_delxyde Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for this essential tip!

@fulvio3211 10 ай бұрын

Thank you, I am dyscalculic and I really prefer systems where you can just add/subtract without making the math yourself

@Steelrat1994 9 ай бұрын

@@fulvio3211foundry's pathfinder at this point has an (almost) fully implemented weakness/resistance system, so you just click damage/half damage/block/double damage and it calculates properly.

@dgcf3426 2 жыл бұрын

Back when the lockdowns began I joined an online group of first edition pathfinder and we played for a long time eventually we got to level 14. One really annoying part of the high-level gameplay was people becoming "A jumble of distracting colors" as we called it. All the different buffs and concealments stacked on top of each other were absolutely necessary for survival but it was so tedious to apply them in or out of combat. Add to that myriad of class features and monster abilities a single round of combat sometimes took 3 to 4 minutes to resolve. High-level pathfinder 1e combat is not fun. We switched over to 5th edition d&d to its credit it had none of that tediousness. But it felt like both the characters and enemies were gimped by the concentration mechanic. Also, the simplicity of most of the classes really turned me off particularly. As we continued from level 14 I can't really speak on how low-level play goes. However, the graphs at the beginning of the video didn't surprise me at all. One of the other players said 5e plays like a chess game but all the knights bishops are replaced with castles. It feels like a chess game but all the tactical fun is replaced with simplicity as you brute force all the encounters till you win. I watched a lot of your videos and pathfinder 2e seems very engaging and streamlined. A lot of issues I have with other systems don't seem so bad here. It's safe to say you sold me on this game man good job :D

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

That rooks analogy is great. Yes, in my experience with 5e combat felt like "brute force," positioning isn't very important, AC and defenses aren't very important, and you need to increase your DPR (or shut down your opponents) so that your enemies' health bars go down earlier than yours. I'm glad that the videos have helped you!! I was a PF1 GM myself for nine years and had similar frustrations as you report, while still preferring its customization and complexity to 5e when 5e landed. I am confident that you'll enjoy the PF2 system since it addresses the limitations of previous systems!

@fjordojustice 2 жыл бұрын

The monster ease of use here makes me quite jealous, as a 5e DM.

@feferson492 2 ай бұрын

a single dragon isn't hard on 5e either

@Dezbood 2 ай бұрын

A single dragon wouldn’t challenge a level 20 party either, unless you homebrew the heck out of it

@VanHoenheim 2 жыл бұрын

I used to play on/gm/manage a 5e gestalt server that was an absolute mess and wanted to homebrew my own fixes for 5e, but after all the work I've put in, I realized what the creators clearly won't admit, it's unbalanced and a lost cause past level 13! This video is the final nail in the coffin, I'm going to try out pathfinder 2e!

@talhoyle Жыл бұрын

Dungeon World. You might just find your groove. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oLGWrbhq27W1e5s.html&ab_channel=DaveThaumavoreRPGReviews

@yagamifire7861 Жыл бұрын

5e seriously utterly falls apart in a lot of ways. They put so much focus on combat that the rest of the system is barebones or non-existent...and at high level even the combat falls apart. It's crazy

@Eccelsed 2 жыл бұрын

I think that regarding system demostrantion you are the best pf2e creator. Also great job at menaging 4 player and the dragon during the session. Yes there where some errors but the feats-and spells are too many for the Gm to menage alone.

@Jason-ji8ql 2 жыл бұрын

I have loved every single one of these, and I cannot wait for people to see how effective level 20 gameplay is in PF2E. Keep up the good work sir!

@stillmattwest Жыл бұрын

I don’t know if it’s having the effect you’re thinking. This video has mostly convinced me that PF2E is too complicated. Too many feats, crazy bonuses, too many rules. Kudos to the Rules Lawyer for keeping track of all that, but I don’t have that kind of study time for a game.

@goldi947 Жыл бұрын

@@stillmattwest I think looking at a game at it's most complicated and delegating that to the rest of the system is a bit disingenuous. This is something you're supposed to build up to, of course it seems like a lot.

@peterstedman6140 9 ай бұрын

@@stillmattwest99% of the time a battle like this would be the result of a year+ of time building up to this level of complexity. The rogue would be used to siding the fighter's opportunity attacks and the cleric player would always remind the GM about the fire resistance. There's a fair bit going on but it's not like you'd have to study for this.

@LightningRaven42 2 жыл бұрын

Stellar video as always. One thing that would be great to add is how Flying works in this edition, because it's a major departure from DnD5e AND Pathfinder1e. The fact that you need to spend once action per round in flying (and that hovering often requires a skill check) should be common knowledge (this has a direct impact in the evaluation of mobility feats and flight spells/ancestry feats. There's a lot less "Why I need to be good at jumping/climbing/running since I can just fly?").

@jsamue12 Жыл бұрын

Currently level 15 in a 1-20 game; Almost the entire party can fly, and we've fought multiple dragons. No one (including the gm) knew this and we've just been using the Stride action to move since it doesn't specify land speed.

@LightningRaven42 Жыл бұрын

@@jsamue12 Flying is a little more complicated than straight movement rules, if the party can flying consistently, it should be a set of rules that need to be thoroughly known. Flying trivializes a lot of adventuring challenges, so it shouldn't be as effortless and costless as other D20 editions made it to be.

@EanMoody Жыл бұрын

@@jsamue12 It's really not a huge difference for most situations. It's mostly just a big deal if they're standing still and conserving actions. They key sentence is: "If you’re airborne at the end of your turn and didn’t use a Fly action this round, you fall." So if they're "striding" horizontally every round, they just used the wrong word but got the same effect. If they went up or down they missed some movement adjustments (going up is at half speed, going down is double-speed). But if they hovered and didn't do a "stride" or "fly", they should have been down an action (or fallen).

@Zakiel97 2 жыл бұрын

Oh I didn't know that delaying your turn ends any sustain spells you got going but it makes sense now that you mention it. Fun fight, rip lv 7 hunter though - that's what happens when you get cocky!

@aralornwolf3140 2 жыл бұрын

Or... deciding to go out in a barbecue...

@FryGuy1013 2 жыл бұрын

I've already put in a merge request to fix the avatar not being 2 actions. It'll be fixed in the next version.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome. You guys do great work!

@sunlitfoam4512 2 жыл бұрын

I liked this one a lot, my main takeaway which wasn't much of a focus for the video was the use of "sanctuary" and other low level spells which provide useful enough niches.

@webbowser8834 2 жыл бұрын

Funny thing is that Sanctuary did sweet FA that encounter, as the dragon immediately got a crit success against the spell nullifying it. It was a good idea, but the Dragon had a strong enough will save to make it a non-factor.

@Dream146 2 жыл бұрын

I think a lot of these commenters missed the point, the video seeks to answer the question does high level combat work? It would seem the answer is yes. In that you have the monster being a legitimate threat, the players all getting to use their spells and abilities and it a just works and was easy to set up. Were there tactical decisions or parts of the set up that could have been improved? Sure, but that wasn't really the point.

@alanthomasgramont Жыл бұрын

I noticed all the mistakes you made. As a DM, I make a ton of mistakes. When I go back and watch the battles (I record mine and post to KZfaq for fun under a different channel for D&D) I am stunned. I think almost every major battle I forget something.

@Ceriu 5 ай бұрын

its tabletop...mistakes are part of the game lol.

@justmonica9253 2 жыл бұрын

25:44 Precise debilitation does not deal an additional 2d6 precision up front. It reads 'The target takes an additional 2d6 precision damage from your attacks.', which means all her subsequent attacks, until the debilitation wears off at the end of her next turn, deal that additional damage.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Ah! Good catch. Added to the Video Description.

@Matti_Mattsen Жыл бұрын

i've been switching from 5e to PF2e and your channel has been such a valuable ressource for me. Even as a seasoned DM of nearly 15 years now, its still so nice to have a dedicated way of seeing specific aspects of a system in action beforehand. Thank you for that!

@Swarbie8D 2 жыл бұрын

Oh I cannot wait, this is gonna be a fun watch. I’m super interested to see what level 20 play looks like, seeing as my group has only just hit level 7 in Agents of Edgewatch xD

@bryanstrahm9961 2 жыл бұрын

Very well done. This video nicely summed up a lot of my own thoughts on the vast difference in high-level play between PF2 and most other recent D&D-style TTRPGs.

@LiteKipe 2 жыл бұрын

There was excellent use of Foundry's features in this demonstration of combat.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, make sure to tune in/watch my next video which premieres today

@jakubczeczot8500 2 жыл бұрын

Great vid, shows how much fun it's for both players and GM in high lvl fights! Thanks for it!

@samrothstein25 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! Very exciting and I can't wait to get to level 20 to do this myself!

@briannewman9285 9 ай бұрын

As a beginner, I loved this. I'm very keen to see you do similar clips exploring various tactics (e.g. illusionist, gymnast, alchemist, thaumaturge, etc.)

@DanTalksGames 2 жыл бұрын

As someone who's said to not sleep on magic missile for ages now, it's very validating to see it deliver the finishing blow after a succession of misses ;) Also sad we didn't get to see the kamehameha wave go off, but I didn't even think about using haste to reposition while charging the two-turn version. That's a really solid idea (plus it reminds me of Goku using instant transmission to fake out Cell with it lol). I haven't had a chance to run max level combat yet so I was very invested and engaged in this. I'd love to see more higher level content examples, the basics are great for beginners but this more high level tactical play is what I CRAVE when it comes to guides like this. Good job dude.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!! Yeah I plan to have different stuff for different audiences. Definitely am open to more high-level stuff, though it's a bit demanding lol. When I get inspired again, and I'm sure it'll happen!

@calvinthegreat69 11 ай бұрын

Finished a campaign not long ago where one of the other players was a psychic. They really liked to have a heightened magic missile and then amp it. At 9th level they were shooting 9 missile that had +7 instead of +1 for each missile. It was awesome.

@rasleyforde2363 2 жыл бұрын

What a fight!! Great video as always

@raulbottrell-rogers3346 2 жыл бұрын

this was a great fight. all edge-of-your-seat, all the time.

@Stiftquadrat Жыл бұрын

As someone who just got into PF2. This was an amazing display.

@huehuecoyotl2 Жыл бұрын

So well done! As a relatively inexperienced DM, this definitely takes away the hesitance to consider running high level campaigns using Pathfinder 2e.

@fulminictus3557 2 жыл бұрын

Great presentation! Thank you! Also the audio volume is very good now!

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear! Yeah I've learned some basics about video making since I started this channel (the music is in a separate track now)

@lorenzovaletti4951 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for doing this! Super interesting stuff :)

@nicholasbradley4830 2 жыл бұрын

This account is ridiculously underrated ! Keep up the good work!

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!! Alas I'll never get peak numbers since my focus is probably niche in the greater scheme of things, but comments like this are all I need!

@on_certainty Жыл бұрын

sheesh man those are some big bonuses! very cool to see, ty for the demo

@primedko9999 Жыл бұрын

I think this is the single best video on PF2e ever. Thank you.

@AaronArnoldaquapod 2 жыл бұрын

"You don't have to stop your campaigns at level 10" dunked on em

@tennysondiaz-campbell8155 Жыл бұрын

I learned 5 about 3 years ago and since then dnd has become a massive part of my life. I play in 3 campaigns every week and dm another. I looked at P2e and saw it as too complex. I mean like there's A LOT of content to remember. But after watching this only halfway through I got it. Yes there's more stuff going on but for the dm it's so much easier to manage. You don't have to remind players what other stuff it going on around them mechanics wise NEARLY as much. Every player and the DM has the stuff they can do and can apply to whats going on without the DM having to interject every 10 secs to try and remember something else. It just seems a lot more harmonious mechanics wise than 5e. I mean people could argue that the looseness of 5e means there's more creativity but I'd disagree. There's rules for basically everything in 2e and if those rules for some reason seem to unreasonably restrict players. Just ignore them. It's just sooooooooo reassuring as a dm that there are rules that I can rely on and not have to make one up every 10 seconds.

@jnewgot Жыл бұрын

There are also Games like Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous to get you in the general feel of mechanics.

@BartoszBielecki 9 ай бұрын

We need more of those. Epicness and the ROAR is off the charts!

@silvarace Жыл бұрын

The biggest thing to me that sticks out with high level play in a lot of systems is it turns into rocket tag, just sitting around waiting for someone to either crit an attack roll or crit fail a save so something will actually get through. but that i think is coming more from monster design and stats than the actual system itself which is frustrating. like they were sitting around making monsters and couldnt think of anything more challenging than oh lets give this thing a monstrous AC and just straight immunity to a whole laundry list of damage types and no weaknesses, looking at you lesser death encounter at level 13

@christopherbennett2411 2 жыл бұрын

Took me a few sittings, but thank you. You have sold me on pf2 even more.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Glad the video helped you decide!!

@All-shall-say-Jesus-is-Lord Жыл бұрын

You do a great job of showing how great PF2e is! I spent weeks homebrewing huge swaths of revisions to 5e to fix so many things that bothered me. Since I started learning PF2e, I've found that they ended up with many of the same things I came up with...all that wasted effort, should've just come straight to Pathfinder 2e...

@sandimtavares 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing video! Just a correction, there were a few times in which you used their quickened actions to Fly, and Haste is very specific, you can only Stride or Strike, flight not being included in that. Impossible not to make some mistakes while piloting a full level 20 party plus a level 24 dragon, though! Commendable job, loved this video.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Great point. I did some digging because I am sure there is a rules element somewhere allowing you to substitute different movement types (found it - it's Tumble Through). ... And now I'm mildly upset! Yes, Haste specifies the "Stride" action, which indeed is different from the Fly action. This has to be errata'd. Because, by the same token, since some characters with an animal companion can have their companion "Stride or Strike" when it's not Commanded that turn, then a bird companion needs to land on the ground and waddle to move then. Makes zero sense. And I see no value in limiting Haste to only land Speeds. Adding to the video description. This is a first, folks: this Rules Lawyer calls for disobeying an unjust law! >:(

@rainey82 Жыл бұрын

This was definitely worth the watch!

@somecallmetimelderberries432 Жыл бұрын

Nice, thanks for sharing that, it helped a lot!

@Epic501 Жыл бұрын

Wow, I'm thoroughly impressed by how tense that remained and how balanced the math seemed to remain. Great system.

@Unterweltler 2 жыл бұрын

Keep up the good work.

@jpcg698 2 жыл бұрын

A small correction during the part where the dragon breathes fire down. Valeros already had a +3 status bonus taken into account for his result of 40, so his +4 status from Poog should have made hsi roll 41, replacing the herosim bonus.

@NaJk93 7 күн бұрын

That damn Sinistar sfx. My nightmare as a child haha

@haerdalis84 Жыл бұрын

One point - you mention that forgetting abilities is a 5e issue, but on several occasions that you yourself highlight, you forgot to apply certain modifiers...so it's not a uniquely 5e issue.

@gorgit Жыл бұрын

To be fair, here he played 5 roles simultaneously: the dm, and 4 pc's

@TwistedTentacleInn Жыл бұрын

This series has convinced me that pathfinder is for me. - The Innkeeper

@BasementMinions 2 жыл бұрын

What an astonishingly tense fight with such minimal setup.

@Salazzarslaan 8 ай бұрын

Coming in late but I wanted to point out that this combat only took an hour! Compared to every other high level fight I've been in that's really good. Even if you added some time for table chatter or less prepared players, this is very smooth.

@blueberrydetective7323 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing work on this one! This has been a great series. I know it's been a hot minute since we discussed on reddit, but I think more videos like these would be great split into a 'beginner/introductory' video and an 'intermediate' video. The beginner/introductory video could be 5-10 minutes and focus on the narrative of the combat and how the various actions and abilities affect the narrative of the fight and then the intermediate video could be longer and focus on the tactical decisions the 'players' made. That way you can get twice the content out of your well made footage. Keep up the great work!

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

It's a good idea. I had planned to make this video a beginner friendly vs a beginner "un"friendly but I thought it would be too much. The latter would be me reacting and commenting to the 1st video. But then this video became pretty explanatory already. How I'll do it is I think I'll have more beginner friendly videos that are clear from jump (incl. the title), and split things up into tiered playlists as I have more videos.

@blueberrydetective7323 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG I completely agree that you made the right choice here with this high level video. Fights like this are meant to be the culmination of a lot of play. The playlists will help a lot for sharing with newcomers. Thanks again for all of the hard work!

@lorenzovaletti4951 2 жыл бұрын

Reminds me how much I absolutely love this edition.

@kurasoe Жыл бұрын

Interesting and well done. I do think that the complexity and time spent skyrockets a bit if not using a VTT. Playing in person with pencil and paper as I do at level 20 is probably still a bit much. But it certainly works better than 5E at high level in general with less swing and need for additional tools and adjudication / fiat.

@mannsama7084 Жыл бұрын

Loved the Overlord reference.

@LeFlamel Жыл бұрын

lol @ the Overlord reference. I see you are a man of culture.

@calel9530 Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! That was a fantastically explained video. This pretty clearly showed to me why PF2e is just not for me. It has the advantage that the GM pressure lessens because there is a rule for everything. On the other hand, the burden for a players grows exponentially. As you said in the end of the video: It gets less complex for the GM because everyone can help out. That is though only true if you find players who are willing to dive into the crunchy rules of the game. That system sounds great for a group who want that kind of gameplay but I am sure that it's nothing any group I play or run sessions with would like to play.

@GMRayJ36 2 жыл бұрын

This is great! I know you only run this and 5E, but if you'd run a similar combat using 2E or even another old school system, I really think you could impact a big group of players like me! 👍

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Ah! I actually have veerry little experience with pre-3E D&D, though I grew up reading the rules in the 80s. And I want to have more experience. So I'm probably not the best person right now to do such a vid. But I'm curious as to what makes you want to see such a vid? Because I'm a person who avidly reads books and thinks about the history of the TTRPG hobby, and I have yet to run videos I plan on doing that touch on older versions of D&D.

@AlexPBenton 2 жыл бұрын

I really love how swiftly you are able to use foundry, have you made a video on all the keyboard shortcuts, modules, etc that you use?

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

That's my next video! (Make sure to subscribe!)

@AlexPBenton 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG I've been subscribed for a few weeks already :) I really like these encounter examples, they are inspiring to me as a DM

@MrShooter713 2 жыл бұрын

Love your videos and your excellent explanations of pf2e’s balanced, challenging and exciting games play at all levels. Been playing for 2 years now and it is so much better than d&d5e.

@adriandellatorre2489 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the amazing video! Which module do you use so you can drag up and down initiative orders? Or is it native to Foundry and I never used it?

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Gonna release a Foundry vid soon, but I believe it's under Combat Enhancements mod (go under the mod's settings)

@mbenslimi 2 жыл бұрын

great fight , thank you . Can you do the next fight with an alchemist on the roster ? i want to understand how to play the class

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Hmm, I'll put that subject on the list. Not sure exactly in what format I'd address it tho

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Ya know? I've changed my mind. I think the alchemist is such a weird, unprecedented class that it needs its own demonstration. I plan one! But not sure when it'll be since I have other ideas too I wanna do

@TheyDarthElmo 2 жыл бұрын

Super cool. Lookingfoward to getting back to PF2E. Waiting on the edition update for Kingmaker, so we can keep playing that campaign, just in the new edition. I find PF1E very draining to run.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Yep, I GMed PF1e for 9 years which was great fun, but yes mid- to higher-level play is such a burden on the GM. Even Level 1 characters could get hard to deal with because there are so many subsystems spread out over so many different options that work differently from each other.

@Wizard_Level_1 10 ай бұрын

This is a good video. I will say that a lot of Adventure Paths are overturned and I find myself often needing to adjust encounters or even certain monsters. Sometimes an AP's author will create a unique creature that doesn't quite follow the system guidelines (like having really high AC, and all saves are high, and HP is high, and it does a lot of damage AND it has a high attack bonus for it's level), and set them at a level lower than what they should be considering. But that isn't a problem with the system itself, just something new DM's running Adventure Path's need to keep in mind.

@Jader7777 2 жыл бұрын

The dragon uses Draconic Frenzy! (Excel sheet opens and performs logarithm)

@daveward3029 Жыл бұрын

Color me late to the party. I've been trying to learn more about Pathfinder with some of the limitations of D&D 5e. This was very interesting, but what has gotten me has been the status effects and conditions. There are a blue million of them. While appreciate a move away from the idea of "Math"-finder, it still has similar issues I had when playing a level 18 campaign of 3.5 years ago. I appreciate the effort! It's really fascinating!

@ThePromptWizard2023 2 жыл бұрын

Can you detail which Foundy modules you are using? I am thinking of ditching Roll20, your setup is BOSS!

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

That's my next video! (Make sure to subscribe if you haven't hehe)

@Kirholm12 9 ай бұрын

@TheRulesLawyerRPG THanks for the vid! At 22:52 Merisiel is at 5ft, the dragon is at 10ft and Valeros is at 0ft - does pf2e flanking not care about the elevation?

@NerdishNature 10 ай бұрын

Amazing. I love to see the idols in action.

@ikaemos 2 жыл бұрын

This was great! Although it's better _by a mile,_ I still wouldn't say PF2e bypasses the D&D problem of high-level parties punching above their weight class. Even though the numbers put the dragon above the party, they had access to high-level tchochkes, spells, and an opportunity to prepare and adapt - this more than leveled the playing field. The party really handed this great wyrm its ass. Also, as a side bonus, these videos showcase Foundry VTT's implementation of the system quite nicely. It does, however, irk me whenever you count and input HP by hand - there are buttons for that under each damage roll. They take into account when the target is resistant to the damage type being applied, and there's even one for blocking which reduces the damage by Hardness and applies the rest to the target's HP and shield HP. EDIT: Something that worries me about potentially taking PF2e to high levels is how the tightness of the math makes it difficult to use lower-level monsters. This might not affect all campaigns, but I can imagine myself struggling with a campaign where the party has to deal with balors and pleromas every week. In 5e, single boss monsters become pushovers far too easily, but the opposite is also true - a double-digit number of lower-CR monsters can still threaten a high-level party because action economy is overwhelmingly more important in a bounded accuracy system. I've heard good things about Proficiency Without Level rules in PF2e: that they make encounters 5e-style (i.e. single entities are easy, being outnumbered is deadly), but that the outcomes aren't as random and unpredictable as 5e. Still, the damage and hit point numbers all seem designed with a super-tight 4-levels-below-or-above range in mind, so I'm hesitant to play around with them.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

At high levels, a well-prepared party is stronger than an "Extreme" boss by the rules. At the lowest levels, my guess is that it is weaker than an Extreme boss, since the boss can so easily knock out a character and cause a spiral effect. I'm aware of those buttons, but I'm a keyboard lover admittedly. Also, fire damage came up a LOT here and I don't think those buttons consider fire resistance. (Do they? If they do this would be a great feature.) If you haven't tried the default PF2 rules yet, I recommend trying them before trying a variant rule. Personally I found that that Proficiency Without Level made monsters feel more samey, because the tightness of the math meant that everything needed an 11 or 12 to hit and I found monsters less interesting, ymmv. I guess most players would like the feeling under the default rules of being more powerful than creatures they struggled with previously, and that they like the drama of encountering a boss. Again, ymmv. PF2 also offers rules for Troops - special creatures that follow their own rules to simulate many lower level creatures. But yes, admittedly PF2 assumes an exponential power curve (double in power every 2 levels) as players level up, so it tells a different type of story. The advantage is that the GM has tools to anticipate the power of an encounter when they want to.

@malkyn9998 2 жыл бұрын

While The Rules Lawyer covered things nicely, I wanted to second the use of Troops, as a GM doing some high level PF1 Adventure Path conversions. Level -5 and -6 could maybe be used as standalone enemies, but they'd be worth 7.5 and 5 xp apiece, continuing the system math. They'd be good for taking the Aid action for bigger monsters, showcasing that their sheer numbers matter. Otherwise good for meat puppets the PCs can feel good cutting down. If you want masses of lower level enemies to actually be a threat, though? Troops. Take an existing troop and modify.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

@@malkyn9998 I did apply 5xp and 7.5gp to Level -6 and -5 monsters a couple times, and found that in those instances the encounter building system still seemed to work (building an encounter where they were 0xp almost caused a TPK, and after I adjusted, the 5/7.5 amounts seemed to reflect the actual feel of the encounter)

@Dream146 2 жыл бұрын

You say they kicked its ass and yes they won but as we saw a few more dice rolls not going their way or if the dragon had really focused Poog instead of spamming its breath every chance it could have been a very different story. Not to mention they knew what they were going into, got to pre-buff and even with that this was a rocky fight with plenty of chances for things to go wrong.

@theangler1922 Жыл бұрын

In short, "Fighter and Cleric duo dragon while Rogue and Wizard watch."

@davidcadywold4901 Жыл бұрын

Excellent video, what is the module that you use to change the players hp, the small input window that appears when you alter their Hp?

@TheRulesLawyerRPG Жыл бұрын

Token Health

@DeannaGilbert616 Жыл бұрын

13th Age does high level play well too, but I’m going to be checking out PF2e.

@Paul-zk9ou 2 жыл бұрын

Can you tell me what Foundry module you use to get the HP to pop up when you hover on the token? Great video. I'm sharing with some people including trying to win over a PF1 fanatic with it who mostly thinks PF2 is a slightly more complex 5e clone and hasn't considered something like this before

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Hope this video helps in convincing! I think you're talking about the tooltip appearing to the right of a token, yes? I use Illandril's Tooltips You also can right click a token to get its HP to appear

@Paul-zk9ou 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG thank you!! Keep up the solid academic style work

@neovi6424 Жыл бұрын

Good to know the combat works and is balanced at high level play. Unfortunately other than haste, the wizard really didn't do shit in this fight... not that wizards are bad but just the spells you chose to cast.

@rougheredge6705 Жыл бұрын

Also worth noting said Haste absolutely won them the fight. Having that extra action really came in handy.

@Viper3220 11 ай бұрын

Yea everything other than aid, attack, heal, and fire resist did virtually nothing because the chance of effecting the dragon was so low.

@Jojothejman Жыл бұрын

You forgot that the Ezren's time stop would have made him lose the effects of poog's blessing of defience spell, as effects on you still tick down inside of time stop, and blessing of defiance only lasts for one round.

@maxmusterspace6037 2 жыл бұрын

Bought the core rulebook, bestiary 1 and the plaguestone adventure to try the system. I hope the investment will pay of and my group likes it enough to play the kingmaker path later this year. I am really afraid of the conditions and all the crunchiness tbh. Hope it won't be as bad. ;)

@TheUnluckyEverydude 2 жыл бұрын

I'm sure this was fun to make. Pathfinder is so good, you can play it Single player lol

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

I'm pining for the CRPG that incorporates PF2e as a system, and which also lets me play PF2e as a Roguelike!

@j.judkins5778 Жыл бұрын

In another of your videos you suggested ignoring the flat DC 20 based on circumstances at the moment. There was an aid to intimidation check at 54:30, the DC being set to 20 (as per old rules). Considering the 'rules to ignore' video mentioning aid DCs is more recent, signifying views have now changed, would you now change the aid DC to be against the willpower DC of the dragon? Thanks for being out there, by the way. Liked and subscribed.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG Жыл бұрын

That video came after this. Doing it now, I probably would set it to the same target DC. Though for the purpose of this video (to showcase the system) it's alright, too

@sotech10 Жыл бұрын

Man, I could watch a whole movie with these fights

@ladislavseps4801 Жыл бұрын

I was just missing cold spells :p and playing around the cold weakness. Even ray of frost would have taken the dragon down. And maybe basic 3gp frost vials with cold splash even on hit failure are 26 dmg in this case.

@zweieck3623 Жыл бұрын

Hi, I am currently in preparation for a campaign with a big group (7 people) and am thinking of dividing the group because of the issue with balance in fights. I fear that in high levels it will be not really possible to give them a fight against one epic monster. As you presented, with a group of 4 it is quite easy to balance in Pathfinder, but do you think 7 level 20 adventures could be challenged by one creature and the fight not being broken?

@TacticusPrime 7 ай бұрын

What did you end up doing? I'm thinking of running a 6 person group and I'm wondering if just using table 10-1 is enough for encounters. Were you able to just increase the XP budget and run normally?

@celanian8188 2 жыл бұрын

Do you think this party could deal with Treerazer at CR25? I am interested in how PF2 would handle demon lord fights, after running WOTR in PF1.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

My guess is no - the party would have to be well prepared and have a bit of luck. The game is engineered such that things above a certain level aren't really meant to be thrown against X level party. The rules explicitly say to avoid monsters more than 4 levels above or below the party. (Fortunately it's easy enough to adjust stats of preexisting statblocks, so low-level creatures aren't automatically made useful to the GM because the party has become higher level.)

@davidgriffin9412 2 жыл бұрын

I've played in may D&D games (3.0, 3.5) that went over level 15. The last one I played were were all level 23 when we took a break with the intent to pick up where we left off. Yes, we had a lot of magic items and buffs. My character's base to hit was usually +75 with magic and buffs. I could do over a 1000 points of damage with each hit. Our fights were not cake walks. I can remember rolling a 16 to hit with my plus 75 added totaling 91 and missing. Our gamemaster was able to scale his encounters to our party. I remember the first time I did over a thousand points of damage and was expecting the target to go down, and it didn't. It took three more hits before it went down.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, sounds like my Wrath of the Righteous campaign in PF1. Of course that exposes the problems of unbounded math in PF1. If a monster's AC was higher than 91, then there probably were PCs who couldn't hit it without a natural 20. I know from personal experience that balancing high-level encounters for a PF1 party is a LOT of work. Kudos to your GM!

@willems9411 Жыл бұрын

It's my understanding that D&D 3.0 and 3.5 especially are closer to Pathfinder (1e was colloquially called 3.75 by some) than to later editions of D&D, so that might be part of why they're also able to scale well into late game encounters.

@ICLHStudio 2 жыл бұрын

Honestly, when you were talking about throwing a single level 24 monster at the party, I was really hoping for a Frumious Jabberwocky; the Dragon makes sense (especially by being easily comparable to other systems) but is a tiny bit disappointingly generic. Still a great video and demonstration though. It definitely highlights how the game is much less "rocket-tag" at high levels than 5e and especially PF1 (where the first successful attacker can usually win in a single round); and how little extra balancing or homebrew you have to do to make things work. I do have to say though that I think some of the balance issues of high-level play, at least in PF1 (I'm not really a 5e guy, so I don't know that too well), are greatly exaggerated IMO. I haven't had a particularly hard time making some pretty successful epic and boss encounters for my game; it mostly just takes a good understanding of the system and the capabilities of your players, and if you're willing to put a good chunk of time and effort into building custom enemies it actually becomes pretty easy (although, still not as easy as PF2 makes it). Honestly, the biggest balance problem of PF1 is all about disparity among the party members (which still seems at least a little alive here, but not nearly as bad). It's easy to make monsters or groups that challenge any individual character, but with the complexity and depth of character building (the one thing that PF1 still has over 2e by far) the difference between a well-built character and a poorly-built (or even average) is HUGE. Anything that can challenge a powerful martial character (especially Barbarians or Fighters) will usually be able to effortlessly solo the rest of the party, and anything that the other party members can reasonably take out is going to get completely curb-stomped by the top player. This is only compounded when the strongest character is also played by the tactically best player (and is why our fighter is planning on swapping to a weaker character soon, as his current one, while awesome, is just so much more powerful than every other member of the party).

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

I was worried about high level play seeming too complicated so erred toward a more basic monster. Also, I thought it would be fun to raise the question "Who does dragon fights better" given that D&D has dragon in its title (this was an original title idea). I don't think this will be the last high level combat however. I GMed PF1 for nine years, and yes I agree the disparity within the party can be an issue. I ran Rappan Athuk to about Level 21, and some party members had attack bonuses about 12 to 15 higher than others. I had to make a spreadsheet calculating each character's DPR to come up with my own homebrew versions of monsters, and regularly had to increase the CR of monsters by 5 or 6 levels. And still sometimes the players would come up with something, or a single die roll or two would decide the fight. So it ended up being a lot of work for an okay amount of reward, while I found the ratio to be much better in 2e.

@Mahonkimise Жыл бұрын

I think choosing the dragon is a good option to show the difference between say PF2E and DnD 5e. In DnD 5e dragons are a complete joke and super lame. I have had 2 5E campaigns where I ran an ancient dragon RAW and a level 10 party basically killed the dragon. It took a while but the party never was in proper danger. A third time I mildly homebrewed an ancient blue dragon and the fight got more intense, but the fight also lasted an ungodly amount of time. By the end when the final blow on the dragon came, my players were not cheering but rather relieved that the encounter was finally over. So I think this definitely showed that a dragon is actually a viable option and a terrifying monster to throw at even a higher level party and I really liked how it showcased the fact that you can easily adjust the monsters and there are good and clear rules on how to do it, making the GM's life way easier.

@zanecrane3687 2 жыл бұрын

Dang, I did not know Pathfinder 2e had such big numbers

@jasonshortt7 Жыл бұрын

I think that Pathfinder 2e is a great game but for one thing. You gain feats or abilities at every level, sometimes several. By the time you hit 20th level, you have around 44 feats. Some are passive abilities that you don't have to remember but you might have a few dozen feats that give you special bonuses or actions (like quick draw) that you will have to remember. So I only played the game a little bit. To anyone reading this that plays PF2E, do you find the volume of feats/abilities a good thing or bad or so-so? I'm just curious if I should persevere.

@aerikhollingsworth1640 Жыл бұрын

Long ago but I quite like the number of abilities I have. It makes me feel useful in a lot of situations. I play a recently leveled up to 3 champion Paladin whose religion is basically just nature

@scarabart6598 2 жыл бұрын

Hi, are we gonna have an updated version with flyning not benefiting from haste? Only saying cause then the blast of wind that pushed the dragon down actually did something ;-) Also you could stride(hasted) 4th extra action -on land and then fly- fly -strike for 3 normal actions :-)

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Nah, this took like 40 hours to make lol. And the thread caused a bit of a stir. Maybe the rules will catch up and be correct =D Hell no will PF2 characters be unable to do what 5e characters can do (haste + fly) >:( not sure how it would change the effect on the dragon. The dragon GTFO'd immediately.

@maxzzzzz3004 2 жыл бұрын

@The Rules Lawyer Do you think that the "Concurrent Initiative System" that DungeonCraft describes could be adapted to P2E? Would it make sense? Or would it destroy balance. I tried a prototype version once in a small battle with my Party. It felt faster from my perspective. Although my group did not like it being so hectic. And it was a very short battle (two rounds) I am not sure if the combat balance suffers since I am not so firm with balance yet. When I try it alone for myself my brain starts to melt. So many things to keep track of. It feels way slower there. I like it being a bit more immersive. It removes the strange logical errors occurring with normal turns. (fighter completes turn, goblin goes next and hits with his last action, cleric is up next and heals with his first action, there is other more strange stuff with dead creatures), (fighter uses 3 times stride to move up to the enemy even though the enemy would be running towards him). there is more. Here is the system I crudely hacked together: * Every turn is split into 3 Phases one for each Action Point. * I go through the table in clock order * First I ask everybody to declare what they want to do, the declaration is somewhat abstract like "i stride towards the nearest goblin trying to attack next" during resolution I pick something that is the most faithful to what the player intended to do. like ok they booth meet in the middle because the goblin is trying the same. * Next they roll and calculate all Dice potentially required for that action, while I already ask the next person to declare * If somebody takes to much time to declare they skip the phase * Last I collect all dice for the monsters actions and roll them all at once, (I pick them later up the dice starting from the top left going down to the bottom right as my "pre rolled dice pool") * then the phase is resolved in that order: movement first, then shot weapons, then spells, then mele and thrown weapons (stuff that can be done fast goes first) * resolution for the players is fast because the math is already done * if conflicts arise the higher d20 doubles as flat initiative, higher resolves first, conflicts are rare since grouping of actions above (so only stuff like bow vs bow can conflict) * if something takes more than one action it depends on what they do in which phase the action is resolved. spells trigger usually at the end of two phases. 3 magic missles can trigger at each phase I am not sure yet If I could get rid of turns entirely and use 1 Action as base unit. Something would have to be done with M.A.P. though.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

It seems to me it would be harder to hack into PF2e because every action is designed with the fact that you have 3 actions in mind. The MAP penalty is a big one. And I assume that such a system assumes that everyone has 1 "action" that is 1 melee attack or 1 ranged attack or 1 spell. This made sense during AD&D when that was the reality. But PF2e made a deliberate design choice where you have to decide how to juggle your 3 actions. You'd have to tell everyone "in the Movement Phase you can move up to your Speed". And when Melee attack comes, what happens to feats that use 2 Actions instead of 1? Seems like you'd be throwing a lot of what makes PF2 what it is

@Akabeche 2 жыл бұрын

Small correction : at 1:11:50 this shouldn't have been a crit because avatar gives the Cleric a 45 AC. Also I don't know if Foundry accounts for the temp HP the spell gives. Other than that, great fight and even better commentary, I'm still in the low level phase with my group and they're still learning the system (so am I but as a DM I have a bit of a headstart lol) but that video definitely made me hyped for the higher levels. Really too bad that the Kamehameha finale didn't work, that would have been such a great way to end it.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Adding the correction to the vid description. Regret not using that chance to highlight a very important benefit of Avatar. I'm actually happy Kamehameha didn't go off, to keep people hanging lol. I think the 2 round spells need their own video! (Wait you got me thinking...)

@GentlemenofAction 2 ай бұрын

As a 5e DM, I have always found high level combat a pain. I really should go over to PF 2e

@snack_happy656 2 жыл бұрын

I am curious as to your thoughts on the Free Archetype Variant Rule. I would like to see a video perhaps on that.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

It's great for the right group. My hot take: good for players who like to build unique characters, or you want a slight power bump for the party. Less so, if the party has 5 or more PCs and you want the characters to not double up on certain roles, and less so if you have players who are new or aren't really into the character building

@perrywilliamson6256 2 жыл бұрын

2e is great, nice to high monsters are actual threats. Is polymorph a fight ending spell like it is in D&D?

@kamencraftbrasil4367 2 жыл бұрын

In PF 2e the only polymorph spell that could act as a fight ender I can think of is the level 6 spell baleful polymorph, (fortitude save, critical failure effect is to turn the target into a harmless animal in body and mind permanently unless dispelled, failure is to turn the target into an animal for 1 minute and they can use 3 actions on their turn to try to end it earlier with a will save, success is the target is sickened 1 and crit success is nothing happens) but it has the incapacitation trait, so enemies more than twice the spell's level make their roll one degree of success better (a crit failure becomes normal failure, a failure becomes a success and a normal success becomes a crit success) so it CAN turn the tide of the battle, but it will not decide it.

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Nope! It has the incapacitation trait, so it only really completely shuts down a monster if they aren't higher level than your spell's effective level. (i.e., a polymorph spell heightened to 9th level could permanently affect a Level 18 creature, but not a Level 19 creature). This Incapacitation trait is explained during Scare to Death at 35:26

@sebbonxxsebbon6824 Жыл бұрын

A note about AD&D 1e, the dragons wings are damaged and it is unable to fly, or crashes if flying at below 50% hit points. Does PF 2e have that rule?

@GamingMansion 2 жыл бұрын

Shouldn't the fighter be also healed by the AOE at 1:11:33? And become Wounded 2?

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, he should've regained consciousness and gained the Wounded 1 condition. (If you're not already Wounded, you just gain the Wounded 1 condition.) Thankfully, his next turn didn't come up! (If it had, probably would've caught it and re-shot it.)

@zaka3709 2 жыл бұрын

Hello, very good video, i've DM some high level fight and i love PF2e combat system, we see in your video what make this game so good to play. Just a little thing i want to point at: 52:10 Here you say Ezren dismiss punishing winds, but only a small list of spell can actually be dismiss no ? And punishing winds is not in this list Dismiss action: "You end one spell effect or magic item effect. This must be an effect you are allowed to dismiss, as defined by the spell or item. Dismissal might end the effect entirely or might end it just for a certain target or targets, depending on the spell or item."

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

Ah, well your comment made me look at the rules. Hm, WHICH spells specifically say you can Dismiss them? I know that in PF1e, you had to find "(D)" in the spell entry to know whether you can dismiss it. I wonder the text you quote is just a holdover from 1e.

@zaka3709 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG Most Battle form can, like Angel Form for the exemple. But it has to be mention in the spell like this for exemple: Invoking the celestial realms, you transform into a Medium angel battle form. When you cast this spell, choose balisse, choral, monadic deva, or movanic deva. The battle form is Small if you choose choral. While in this form, you gain the angel and celestial traits. You have hands in this battle form and can use manipulate actions. [You can Dismiss the spell.]

@TheRulesLawyerRPG 2 жыл бұрын

@@zaka3709 Thanks. Oh well, I stand corrected (again!). Thankfully it had zero effect here (because it ends at the end of his turn because it requires him to Sustain it). Will add a correction in the description tho.

@zaka3709 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheRulesLawyerRPG No problem, i discover something new time to time too. Keep up the content ;)