Let’s Review the Pathfinder 2E Playtest Handbook! Part 1: Ancestry

Let me preface this with quick some quick background.  I have been playing D&D and it’s related cousins since 1984.  I have played every printed edition of the venerable game.  That includes Pathfinder.  I have a love/hate relationship with Pathfinder.   Already using an 8 year old rule set (D&D 3rd edition came out in 2000, with 3.5 in 2003), Pathfinder Launched in 2008.  At it’s start it was a grand evolution of D&D 3.5, with some cleaned up rules and a good foundation. Now 10 years later as it’s life-cycle is now coming to a close, I personally feel that Pathfinder is an over-bloated mess of a game, that has too many 1st party published supplements (with hundreds to thousands of options), that really allow players avenues to break elements of the game at very fundamental levels.

Now with all that said I am making every effort to review and share my opinions on the recently released Pathfinder 2nd Edition Playtest Rules.   I am throwing out my current opinion of Pathfinder and trying to look at this with a fresh perspective.

Also keep in mind I think most of these systems are probably almost 100% set in stone, even though it is the start of Open Beta of sorts for the game.  I suspect that there isn’t a ton of things that will change between now and it’s official release next year.  However, I think there will be a fair amount of good rules “clean up” that will take place because of the Playtest.  With that all said lets dig into Playtest.

So the Book opens with the very basic info that all RPG books tend to cover.  What is an RPG?  What are the Dice? What does this term mean? Etc…

So let’s skip all of that and get to the first sections real meat and potatoes.

Part One: Ancestry

So goes the old nomenclature of Race, it has been replaced with the term Ancestry. Honestly it didn’t matter to me that they changed it. It’s more fitting in today’s more terminology charged culture.   So, yeah sure it’s fine.

So first thing we start with your new character’s statistics(stats).  Every PC will start with a 10 in everything. Then you get to apply two Ability Boosts.  So what is an Ability Boost? Well put simply, you get to choose a stat that gets a +2. With the caveat that if the stat is 18 or higher than the bonus is only a +1.

At base character creation then you get two Ability Boosts. Then again at levels 5, 10, 15, 20 you get four Ability Boosts, to four different stats (Note: This is pretty much exactly what is found in Paizo Sci-Fi setting Game Starfinder). However, when you get these free Ability Boosts it does have to go into something other than what you have taken already. So Dwarves at character creation get Constitution, Wisdom, and a Free Boost (any stat),  but the Free Boost cannot be in either Constitution or Wisdom. And no stat can be higher than 18 at character creation.

You can also gain Voluntary Flaws want to start with a 6 intelligence, go ahead…it gives you nothing other than a Role-Playing quirk of being a dumb dumb. (You get no bonus Ability Boost for tanking a Score) The race you choose later might have an inherent Ability Flaw and lower a score by 2 points.

Once your Base Stat line is determined, you choose your characters Ancestry. This again feels very Starfinder-y. The Races in the Playtest are Dwarf, Elf, Hafling, Gnome, Goblin, and Human (With Half-Elf & Half Orc options…yes they are no longer separate Races they are included with the Human more on this later).

Your Ancestry gives you typically your base Hit Points(added before Class selection), Size, Speed, two to three Ability Boosts, one Ability Flaw, Languages (More if your Intelligence is Higher), Traits (Typically non-mechanical things common to that Ancestry) , Sense bonuses (Like Darkvision for Dwarves), and Miscellaneous Ancestry things. For example Dwarves have Unburdened: They ignore 5ft of movement penalties for armor or encumbrance.

Next each Ancestry gives you 2 Ancestry Feats.  This is where you customize your Ancestry choice. You get a list of things to choose from and some of these do have level requirements, but that is okay because you get a new Ancestry Feat at levels 5, 9, 13, and 17. So this is where you might choose Stonecunning for a dwarf, or Keen Hearing for an Elf, etc.

Humans wishing to be Half-Elven or Half-Orcen kinda of get the shaft in my opinion. As one of the two Ancestry Feats you get would have to be either Half-Elf or Half-Orc feat.  Choosing one of those gives you a small list of traits to select from, and if you want all of the traits from that Ancestry Feat you will have to take it twice.

In the same section after Ancestry are Backgrounds.  These are a really nice addition to Pathfinder, better than the Traits from 1st Edition in my opinion.  I like them in D&D 5th Edition, and I think they are welcome addition in Pafthfinder 2e as well.  Backgrounds are of course the life you lived before you went on to become an adventurer. They typically give you two Ability Boosts with one having to be in a Stat that makes sense to the Background. Like an Acrobat gets two Ability Boosts, but one must be in Strength or Dexterity, then the second is a free (to apply anywhere). And a  then Feat…which of course these differ from the Ancestry Feats.

Overall it feels like this entire section is pretty much ripped whole cloth from Starfinder.  There is almost now changes from starting a characters in Pathfinder 2e than there is from Starfinder.   This isn’t a criticism, just an observation.

Stats can be varied from good all over balance, or can be very Min/Max for what you want to play.  So this will appeal to both “moderate” players and the Min/Max crowd.  Stats increase much fast than they did in Pathfinder 1e, as you get 4 Boosts when you hit those Milestone Levels. I like and dislike this as it becomes very easy to overcome stat weaknesses should you have them very quickly.

Also Humans for the first time feel under-powered compared to the other Ancestry. They only get 2 free Ability Boosts, and looks like from this no real other benefits like they have gotten in previous incarnations (Look I am all for this if we start seeing a nice diverse groups that aren’t 90% Human because of that Feat at 1st Level).

Characters can start out pretty front loaded and be heavily min/maxed at first level. Based on what we see from Organized Play this will be a pretty common thing.  We will see a fair number of Stat Lines that look like this: 18, 16, 12, 10, 10, 8.  This is in my opinion is an element of Pathfinder 2e design that I don’t 100% agree with. I personally tend to like to be able to grow my character from level one, and not have my primary stats so heavily maxed out early on (A choice I can make in this system, but then suffers from the cries of your character isn’t optimized).  It’s easy to get a character with their main stats close to max, you can have a Fighter with a 18 Strength or with a 18 Constitution at 1st level.  I really do prefer starting stats a little lower,  and then I have something to grow towards. However, this is after all just my opinion there is no wrong way to play just a preference.

Rating 3.5 out of 5 I don’t like that Half Orc and Half Elf get hosed the way they do and I am not a fan of how you your Stats Load Out. However I do like more than I dislike. So…a Solid C+ for this chapter.

On Thursday I will cover Section 2 the Classes.