How Pathfinder 2e FIXES 1e and D&D (The Rules Lawyer)

I swear dude you are single handedly converting me to Pathfinder 2e

A very important point that comes with the fixing of the "between 6 and 8 encounters per day" problem : you can finally build dungeons without a monster in every room. And it will be perfectly fine ! Because you don't have to exhaust the ressources of your players and because hazards and skill checks give huge amounts of xp (or because you use millestones, that I recommand), you perfectly can have a cave full of bandits with only 2 or 3 combats : the guards at the entrance, some random walkabout if the party is not sneaking successfully, and the boss + his minions. You can fill all the other "rooms" or places with traps, challenges, creativity, social skills, whatever you want. No need to beat the 8 rooms with the 8 variations of a small group of bandits. Very powerful storytelling tool.

As a 5e GM, the more I learn about Pathfinder 2e and engage with these comparisons, the more validated I feel in my struggles. I'm running an epic campaign and the players are currently level 16. Balancing encounters is a complete crapshoot. I can throw things at them that according to the system is probably Deadly x4, and they breeze through it. It's become really stressful and work-intensive. I'm really looking forward to finishing the campaign and switching to PF2.

I haven't even played my first real game of P2 yet, and I can already see that the 3 Action system is absolutely the way D&D should go.

I personally think the rules are a + to a narrative game. The thing is I know how to roleplay a character and I know how to tell a story. I want the game system to be able to handle the rest of the stuff. Pf2es strong rules are good at handling that stuff and also lets me cutomize without having to worry about being optimal or whatever.

I have to be honest that I saw PF2 initially being what this person on reddit thought: I thought PF2 was just taking what made 5E good and what made 3.x stuff good and put it together! After actually going out and learning about it I found it to be VERY, VERY different than either however! Edit: In the best of ways, at least in my opinion! It has become my go-to fantasy system over the last couple of years, the time in which I have really gotten to learn about the system.

Man I just saw Jason Bulmahn's new video (about his Pathfinder Hack, Hopefinder) and his 4 Pillars of Pathfinder 2e Core Game Engine, and their fine tuning of math to make it story driven and customizable is downright inspiring. He and his team were so incredibly passionate about creating an game engine that is iconic and future-proof that they absolutely hit it out of the park. Props to him and paizo team.

CORRECTIONS/ERRATA: -At 10:10, there are some free actions that don't have a trigger like Release (releasing an object). A number of others don't have triggers per se, but they need to be done immediately before doing something else (like a wizard draining their Arcane Bond to fuel their upcoming spell). -At 12:05, there actually is ONE more type that comes up SOMETIMES in battle, the item bonus from an alchemical item or some other effects -If you dislike tracking conditions and their effects, digital tools like Pathbuilder, Wanderer's Guide, and VTTs let you apply them automatically. -At 20:52, Guidance and Bless don't stack because they aid DIFFERENT kinds of checks: Guidance boosts ability checks, whereas Bless aids only attack rolls and saving throws. -At 39:50, one of the Big Six was a statboosting item to increase your main ability score. (Belt of Giant Strength, Headband of Alluring Charisma, etc.) Shields, while a SEVENTH big item for some characters, was optional. -At 1:04:12, I had planned to but forgotten to give credit to 4e for defining simple, streamlined uses for skills in combat.

"...on this satisfying razor's edge, where the party's tactical decisions matter in determining whether they win." That's something I've really found myself striving for (often unsuccessfully) in my past D&D 5e games and something that comes through in all your group play videos and your amazing 20th level Ancient Red Dragon boss encounter video. Thanks for making such amazing content for us Pathfinder newbs! m(_ _)m

This made me realize that silvery barbs is a more powerful version of hero points, no wonder that spell feels busted! Great breakdown of the design philosophies and differences!

This is probably, in my opinion, the best PF2e comparison video made. Excellent dive into the reasoning behind, and execution of, the things that make the system work well. This video definitely will help me articulate why I prefer PF2e more succinctly and accurately. Awesome work! You've been on a roll lately, I find that I will drop what I'm doing to catch your latest videos, and they don't disappoint. Thanks for the great videos, I'm glad to have an advocate for this game like you!

Please make the rogue cleric fighter teamwork scenario a short, I need to share it with all my PF2e players!

I realize it's been a year, but... Your content is always good, but this is probably one of the best you've done. Packed full of information, while still maintaining your "fair assessment" approach to talking about comparing PF2e to any D&D edition. TL:DR - good video!

Excellent video, Ronald! The only point I would add is that because of the way the "bounded escalator" allows the encounter system to work, it alleviates the issue of action disparity between the two sides of combat. If a party of 4 PCs is fighting a single creature that's +4 levels higher than them, that's 12 actions per round versus 3 actions per round. But because of how the numbers are designed, those 3 actions from the boss monster will be MUCH more impactful (likely critically succeeding) than the 12 actions from the party. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!

Ronald, what an awesome video! Thank you, once again, for your amazing work. And, should I say, the "graphics" and images used in the presentation: GORGEOUS! Glad to be here and support you as much as I can. Looking forward to return to your Patreon. Hope you are fine! Thx again

No conditions are more consistent that Undetected and Hidden, your Allies could Point Out (>Action) the position, and the creature is now hidden and your Allies know which square the creature is, which is in fact the only difference between both conditions. Your Allies could also grapple the creature and you will be sure of which square the creature is, but it is still Undetected for you, but is technically Hidden in reality. I really like the consistency of conditions of 2e.

Only criticism I have is that the Big 6 includes stat-boosting gear, such as a Belt of Giant Strength, not a shield. In fact, oftentimes getting your stat-boosting gear is your top gearing priority. Great video!

I still love 1st edition pathfinder, but I just ran the beginner box for 2e for some friends and I did find it really, really nice to not feel like I have to keep an entire reality simulation running in my head. Next step is to jump from tricycling to a biathlon by converting the Strange Aeons AP for 2nd edition 😅

It's not going to be for everyone, but I really love this level of depth. Thanks for all of the work putting this together.

Thanks. This video was amazing. I haven't played D&D in a few years, but my oldest son was asking to play so I had pulled out my 5E books and started preparing for that. I was defaulting to 5E as I already had physical books, and knew the system and my prep time is pretty limited, but various things especially on the DM side were really starting to grate on me in preparation. When the whole OGL mess went down I bought the Humble Bundle for PF2 as a statement (and hey, can never have enough game materials), but I had not really looked into it in detail. I was worried that it would hew too close to 3.5/PF1, and the various issues it had. I had not played a lot of PF1, but I was largely underwhelmed by how little it had fixed from 3.5 at the times I looked. This video was very helpful in seeing how PF2 actually has addressed a number of the things I was concerned about from 3.5/PF1 and 5E. Enough so that I am going to commit to at least digging in and giving the core rules a thorough reading to see if it would be a better choice for us. This video has made me a lot more confident that if I do spend the time to learn PF2, I can at least trust that it will do something to address those ten issues that were all weighing on me to some degree while planning to play 5E again.