Short Rest: Pathfinder Two-Shot (Part 1)

RIP to the 10 episode pathfinder arc

i HIGHLY recommend Burnt Cookbook Party for a pathfinder podcast. I cannot describe how wonderful the writing is, the cast, and the PCs are so fucking creative

I think you guys should definitely experiment with more mini series campaigns with different systems more often.

Jake’s Mind: Oh okay he’ll work at the lumber farm. Okay, why would he be kicked out?.. … What if he stole a tree? 😭😭

If we had a nickel for every time Emily's TTRPG characters had a dragon named Cinnamon...we would have ten cents

I would love a roll for shoes one shot from you guys, I feel like that would be hilarious

cinnamon needs to get the seashell of stolen sound spell! one recording of his dad's shady dealings and justice can be dealt to the scoundrel

If you're planning on playing more PF you should look into critical succes and critical fail cards! They add fun little buffs or debuffs when rolling nat 20s and nat 1s in combat

Our table has a homebrew rule for aid you may like: successfully helping someone adds +1 AND another +2 per skill rank the helper possesses (+3 total for trained, +5 total for expert, etc)

As someone who plays both D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e, I thought that Caldwell did an awesome job GMing for the first time in the system! It’s a lot more fiddly, for sure. Those +/-1 or +/-2 bonuses and penalties actually make a massive difference, especially once you get to about level three or four and your bonuses are in the double digits. Doubling the damage bonus as well as the dice is huge. However, combat in Pathfinder is absolutely based on using a grid, and is far, far more tactical, which I can see being less interesting in an audio-only format. The mechanics provide exponentially more support for social encounters, exploration, and different types of activities like chases and heists that would be awesome to see.

I gottah ask, what IS Hellbiscuit? Because I don’t think it’s ever established what he is. I get the impression that he’s just a human guy, but what were everyone else’s impressions ?

Tokens rolled with your handful of dice might be a good way to keep track of all the fiddly little +1's and such, help with keeping the math easy and quick

Looking forward to Ep2 Also I wonder if we'll hear from Bev. Doesn't need to be like Hardwan, maybe a message for him or something like that. I feel seeing as 2/3 have shown up it's only fair lol unless Murph want to just edge us on that hahah

You guys heard of DC20? We just play tested last weekend. Similar action economy placing movement as an action point etc. look into it and lmk!

Would be sick if you could bring in a GM who knows Pathfinder back to front to run a campaign so you guys can all learn fun characters

With regards to silly spells, there was a typo in a preview at one point that said the spell "Dinosaur Form" was "Dinosaur Fort". People joked about how this should be a real spell, and eventually Paizo made it real in one of the books. You just summon a small fort guarded by 4 T. rexes.

I think one thing they will notice the more they play is that the numbers are tight. The math is so close, so many times each session a +1 or -1 made the difference. When I first started playing I was like oh that’s it, but +\- 1 comes into play a lot. An it feels really good if you get a crit bc of -1 ac to off guard or someone has an aura that gives +1 and you pass by just that amount. It makes playing a support buffer/debugger more satisfying also. I think the more they play pf2e they will get hooked like so many, myself included. - remaster made things so much better, ie help action, easier to hit the roll and +1 or 2. Will find the remaster more enjoyable.

Two crew! You got to try WFRP and the enemy within campaign! It’s all the things you talked about in the short rest!

I wonder if the idea with helps in Pathfinder is that while it's individually less powerful, you could have a bunch of people stacking it. Four people help me with something to give me a +5. This was how it worked in the sci fi system Traveller iirc.

I really hope their adventuring party name becomes 'The Twin Flames'.

I need emily, or honestly murph with crudbert, to look at the spell inside ropes

I could listen to Bryan Murphy’s lil goblin voice for the rest of my life

not to sound like an absolute nerd, but pathfinder sounds a lot more like an MMO than 5e does.

Don’t forget about Hero Points!

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but what if a success on a help roll allowed the player to roll an extra d4 and 2d4 on a critical help?

Absolutely loved this and can’t wait for part two — although I’m a little anxious that they don’t know to treat wounds, which is an important piece of Pathfinder balancing.

the Medicine skill is good, meta and important.

The secret rolls I've seen used most often in Pathfinder 2e actual plays are centered around knowledge checks which are much bigger in Pathfinder. The GM rolls the check behind the screen and on a fail instead of just saying you don't know anything they actually give false information to represent PC's remnering something incorrectly. An example of this is an investigator class rolling a knowledge check in combat to find out strengths and weaknesses of a new monster. The GM rolls behind the screen and the check fails so the DM tells them the creature is weak to fire when they are actually resistant. Then the next turn a party caster tries a fire spell and realizes that it wasn't actually as effective as the check lead them to belive. One of the great things with this is the opertunity for micro roll playing in combat with this.

Emily hoping she honored the pre-written backstory of Ezren is so funny. Of course she did it justice, more than any PC I've seen. Also, I think Pathfinder only adds to the crews near-endless creativity. 5e can feel restricted because of how streamlined it is, whereas pathfinder feels like there is just so much more substance.

Absolutely more Pathfinder!! I've never experienced it before and it was so cool and just rad as hell

More pathfinder! Amazingly played guys! I want to Gm some PF and this will come as a great help, is really fun to listen to you guys and learn the system

The shell recorder spell is literally a tone dial from One Piece!!!

Please do more pathfinder content 😍 For aid my table uses +4 on a crit, +2 on a success, +1 on a failure, and -1 on a crit fail. The DC is the same for the person aiding. The rules lawyer has a good video on homebrew rules for aid. Works well for lower levels.

My main campaign just switched over to PF2. I went from a Sorcerer to an Oracle Class. The spells are all SO COOL. I also love how useful the game makes utility spells way more useful than Dnd5e. PF2 supports utility spells and not just damage spells.

I would love to have Caldwell do a pathfinder campaign oppa Trinivale style. Those unique and interesting spells really sold me

Am I crazy in thinking that Jake never described their character? Just that they were from a farm? Are they a human? I can’t picture them.

Did they creat a cult in the first hour??😆

What I think i love most, above all else, is Jake’s growth as an RPG player. Ive been a fan since day 1, campaign 1 and feel that I have grown as a player in tandem with Jake. Ive had the pleasure to see two live shows. I was hesitant about you folks doing PF, and to be honest I couldn’t say why. Now, I am so excited to join you all on this journey and learn along. Love ya!!!

Love the idea of a local election type campaign…especially as we go into election season. Maybe pairing it with mild advocacy for being election workers/volunteers. But that’s my inner civic wizard talking!

Huge rose for you guys picking up PF2e! Really hope to see more of this from you guys

Spice Heist plz!!! 🥺🙏🏽🌶️

I hope you guys get a chance to just try a home game of Pathfinder and get crunchy as hell with some battle mats

Speaking of heist games, Guncle Caldwell look up the victory point system/infiltration system in the Gamemastery Guide/GM Core, its so good

Also just wanna add, Paizo is putting out starfinder2e really soon, its perfectly compatible with pathfinder2e And it is not lost on me that it would've been perfect for all of season3, magitech, guns and all the fixings come fully prepped and ready.

Loved this EP Secret checks are meant to make characters act with more hesitency than PCs who know that they just rolled a NAT20, its to stop people from becoming walking lie detectors after rolling insight "oh I rolled a 4 so I know he's lying" Also.. Jake bringing a level3 is massive, crazy move. I really encourage you guys trying out more of the system before homebrewing fixes.

I resubscribed to listen to this ep. I love pf2e! I really hope you guys enjoy playing it 😁

Thorns are just Garfield that haven’t been lasagna

I'm so excited to see more pathfinder from y'all, it's so cool to see y'all liking the system and wanting to play more! In case any of y'all read this I wanna mention some stuff about Aid/Help and going more social-encounter based. 1. I'm not sure if you did this in your game, but if you want to keep Aid on the more useful side: make the Aid DC 15 regardless of what you're trying to help with. Aid is very powerful at high level, but is at its weakest at low-level, which might mean finding other ways of helping your teammates. Also check out the "follow the expert" activity! 2. Pathfinder has set rules for a lot of social actions like "Lie", "Sense Motive", "Make an Impression", etc. These can be really handy if you want a specific way to adjudicate these kinds of things, but they are only there if you want/need them--you can just rule those kinds of things how you like. If you want to gamify non-combat things, try checking out the Victory Point system in the GM Core / Gamemastery Guide and see if you like it! It's a super simple system that can be used for all sorts of things; they have examples for using it for things like infiltrations and chases.

You guys have convinced me-I think I want to run a pathfinder game, maybe do a worldbuilding session first, like A Quiet Year or something, but I'm really liking how crunchy in a good way pathfinder sounds

Burnt Cook Book Party is a very entertaining Pathfinder podcast!

YES emily is iconic how was that ever a question!! cinnamon my best friend my twin flame.... if they dont do more pathfinder soon i'll explode into viscera

This was a delight. I need more

Just wanted to say that Emily's take on Ezren is absolutely hilarious, and the dynamic between all the PCs genuinely had me giggling long after listening. I completely get y'all's concern as to whether PF2e is podcast friendly or not. I don't have a podcast, so I can't speak from experience on that front, but I'll say that after GMing it for 3 years, it's genuinely a fantastic, robust, and well-balanced system, and once you're used to all the bits and bobs like stacking bonuses, remembering conditions, etc, it runs like a dream! Of course, it's not perfect, and generally the remaster solves a lot of issues. Also, as per 'rule zero' in the core rulebook, you folks can deffo customise the rules a lil to better suit the needs of table. Anyway, Caldwell, you did spectacularly at GMing, keep up the great work!

I’d love it if y’all did a mini shot for monster of the week

I'll say a lot of their adventure paths are very specific, like you're doing a heist, you're revolutionaries, you're students, etc. That I think you could take as a loose outline/inspiration.

Personally I feel like secret check sounds the most useful when you have an NPC talking to the party, npc lies but you don't want to outwardly say give me an insight check

I haven't played 2e myself, but if I ever ran a game and used secret checks, I feel like if a player ever asked to roll something I'd already rolled for them secretly, I'd let them have an additional roll. I know the mechanic is made to keep people from meta-gaming, but assuming I have trust with my players (and I wouldn't play with people I don't have a base trust with), I would probably treat secret rolls similar to passive perception. And I would definitely ask for a good number of secret rolls to be made from my players. You could obscure a dice tray and let a player throw in their dice so only you know the result, while making the player feel like they aren't losing out on rolls. And also having that meta-level of fun at the table, since you know something us up, but not what is going on. Honestly, I feel like secret rolls can be really fun. You, as a DM, just have to be aware of how you use them, how you present them, and how your players take to them. Because the biggest rule in this system is have fun.

NADDPOD x Hideous Laughter Pod collab

Y'all must play Delta Green. It is the best. It's like X-Files. Their published Operations (adventures) are stupendous.

Regarding secret rolls, the metagaming isn't with Insight itself, but with the fact that a player would know a low roll failed and therefore know not to trust what the DM says. This isn't as much of an issue with players like the Boobs, who are able to avoid metagaming too much. It's more for the jabroni players out there.

I see others have explained PF2E mechanics in the comments already re:aid and bonuses and penalty stacking. So I won't repeat them. I was pretty impressed with y'all's understanding of the rules for being brand new even with extensive 5E experience. There is a bit of a learning curve for PF2E I think but you guys did pretty good so far and you didn't let the rules stop you from having fun and roleplaying. Great ep!

Wanted to echo what other people have said, debuffs and aids may seem small, but they're not just raising your success rate but your critical range as well. If you want to see this illustrated, the MNMaxed Extinction Curse campaign has a character who specializes in making enemies Frightened (minus 1,2,3,etc to EVERYTHING.)

My husband and I would love to listen to Caldwell DM a full anime pathfinder campaign!!

There is a few online character sheet programs that have all your bonuses and proficiencies, and everything else you could need that would really help streamline adding up your rolls so your not spending a lot of time trying to do math at higher levels

I wonder if the 2 crew would like Call of Cthulhu. The rules feel more narrative focused rather than combat like 5e and Pathfinder. I’ve found it’s pretty easy to DM too because all difficulty checks are using the d100 based on character ability, rather than the DM trying to figure out how hard something is. Bonus points that they can do more noir detective stories!

So did I miss it or did Jake not let us know what Hellbiscuit's race and such were inbetween the having the runs talks?

I'm super excited for the crew to try short campaigns with different systems. There are so many great ones out there. That said, if they do revisit Pathfinder, I'd love to see Emily play a Witch. It's such a fun class in pathfinder. We had Fia in C2 but it would be very cool to see her be able to let loose with an actual class in a system that supports it.

I highly recommend using pathbuilder, especially to newbies! There's an app for android (not apple though) and a web browser version. Full access is a one time payment, I think like $5. Absolutely worth it. I struggle to keep track of all the feats and modifiers and conditions, and it makes playing so much easier. Also, does this mean we can start sending in PF2e court cases?

Blades in the dark is a good system if you want to try it out

I hope we get to hear them try some more different systems. I think Emily could really have fun GMing a PBTA style fiction-first game.

I ran a Pathfinder campaign that was low fantasy set in a world based on the Redwall series, and we had a blast. I am giving myself a thorn for not experiencing all of these incredible spells.

Buffs and debuffs are HUGELY important in PF2E. It's actually part of the reason I think the 2 Crew would prefer pathfinder.....their goofy interactions can be used to buff and debuff in important ways which are very useful in combat as well as interactions with NPCs

I have to say as a Pathfinder native, secret roles suck and feel like your GM stealing your roles 😒

(I also will add that although the little baby boosts of ‘you do this to give a companion +1 or +2’ still do seem a little silly to me too, I have seen a number of videos on YouTube (by people smarter than I lol) that try to prove that they are statistically relevant and not quite as piddly and insignificant as they may seem at first blush, for what that’s worth)

I appreciate the points raised about pathfinder working as a performative system, and while I get the concerns (and ultimately y’all know where you want to steer your ship so take my 2 cents for what it’s worth) I’d point to a show like The Glass Cannon Podcast as an example of a pathfinder show that, while there is more strategy and rule discussion than other shows in the space, doesn’t (imo and in the opinion of many others) suffer for it narratively. Again, maybe you see things in that show that you don’t prefer for your own and would want to avoid, but if you have the time I’d recommend diving into a couple of episodes (don’t listen to one combat heavy episode and form an opinion based solely on that, I would say) to see for yourself if you haven’t already. Pathfinder offers so many more options and customization than we’re used to with 5e and I’d be thrilled to death to listen to the places you could go with the system in a longer form story. I’ll always be a fan no matter what you decide but my personal bias is very Pathfinder leaning these days, just to be transparent lol.

OH and the biggest thing that you really need to keep in mind in Pathfinder is that everyone has Hero Points, which are basically Luck Points for rerolls, everyone gets one per session and the GM is advised to hand them out frequently. Similar to handing out Inspiration, or when you would hand out advantage in 5E, I would give a player a hero point instead. They are super important due to the general lack of Advantage

My table decided that the Aid action was also a tad weak, so we adopted a houserule suggested by The Rules Lawyer. The PC attempting the aid check rolls against the same DC as the person they are aiding, but the results are as follows: Crit Success +4 bonus to the ally! Success +2 bonus to the ally Failure +1 bonus to the ally Crit Failure the ally's roll is unaffected So basically, as long as you get within 10 of the DC your ally is attempting, you help, and you can wildly succeed to give a big bonus. This worked out really well for my table! I also allow similar skill checks where applicable, and encourage the use of Lore skills

Personally I'd love to see more 2e gameplay in the future! I think the system is just the right level of detail for the crew The important thing is to just use lower level monsters. Narrative carries farther in Pathfinder that way

And then Caldwell said, "I'll take my other two actions to drown!" Absolutely killed me hahaha. Because Beverley was really trying to sell that drowning scene

Instead of doing so many help actions, consider allowing a strong character. Do a strength check to pick that character up themselves. Take the onus completely away from the weak character in that scenario possibly?

Hear me out, Sanctorum 10 episode pathfinder series

I'd like to share some of my real-world Pathfinder experience, sorry, that it is seems so negative, but it's just my experience of a player with some game design experience and who prefers role-play heavy narrative driven campaigns (also sorry for the long comment, I hope Patreon wold collapse it so it does not take the whole wall for everyone): 1) a lot of things are secret checks in Pathfinder. This system really fixes a lot of non-existent problems (meta-gaming). So it's not possible to create such moments, as "remember that nat1 you rolled before", like that one huge moment in Starstruck for example, because it would be a secret check and reveal would not feel impactful. 2) dazzled is a condition, that makes everything concealed to you. So it's a DC5 check, which is a 20% to miss. It's somewhat fun, when you do it to an enemy. But it is an absolute nightmare when it is used against you, especially as a spellcaster. Now imagine you are a cleric and want to heal your dying party member, stuck in a web. Due to webs, it would be concealed to you. So you cast a heal spell, but have to pass DC5 check to TARGET AN ALLY. If you don't pass it, the spell is simply lost. 3) also, there are a lot of conditions and traits, and most of them are nested. Like dazzled, for example. You usually can't just see what something does, you have to search the tree of conditions/traits, and during irl play it slows down the game even more. 4) 3-action economy is a big thing in Pathfinder! At first glance, you can do so much more, you can do 3 attacks or move whenever you want... But in real play, you realise, that your actual action economy is halved, compared to D&D, because everything is an action. In D&D you can attack 2 times (with no penalties), move, open the door and move some more. In Pathfinder that would be 2-turn activity or more... You have to take an action to stove/take out the weapon, action to interact with the door, action to move closer to the door, and then through the door. If you drop prone and you are a dual-weapon user, it's 3 action to stand up and take your weapons in hands, which is a full turn. Also, you can't just attack 3 times, because there is a multiple-attack-penalty, and it's hard to hit even 1 time in Pathfinder, because of the system math. If you are a spellcaster, you basically have 2 actions in a 3-action game, because almost all of your spells use 2 actions, so you only have 1 action left and not movement+object interaction+bonus action. That is why there are no rules on multiple spell castings - it is simply impossible for the most parts. Heal is the only spell that actually uses 3-action economy. 5) Help action by default is useless. Mathematically it's better NOT to help anyone, because you statistically you would actually harm the roll on lower levels. Which is a weird design decision, if you ask me. 6) Spellcasters are much weaker then marshals, that is true. You feel it even if the level would be the same. Firstly, because of the action economy, as I've written above. Secondly, the spells are much weaker in general. There are 1400 spells in the game, but only like 5 spells, that are really good and everyone in the community always talks about them, when justifying, why spellcasters are not weak. Thirdly, and this is a big thing, because of the proficiencies (game math) In d&d in general you have 65% chance to hit anything your level. In Pathfinder, it's much different. Fighters are the best hitting class in the game, because it has +2 to hit compared to every other marshal. Which also means you will crit more often because of 10-over crit rules. Now that actually corresponds with what you often get in D&D. You hit on 8-9+, and crit on 18-20. That is only for the first attack, remember, the second attack is -5 to hit, and the third attack is -10 to hit. Every other marshal hits on ~9-10, which is 50% success rate. Spellcaster attack hits on 12, on some levels even 13. So it's a 35% success rate. With a limited resource of spell slots that is. That is why in Pf, you never use attack spells, but use save-spells, but they are designed so that enemy succeeds most of the time, when targetting weakest save, so whenever you see spell damage, you have to half it to see how would it actually perform. Also, against higher levels, like bosses most control spells are absolutely useless. Because of Incapacitation trait. Some of the spells actually only work if the enemy rolls nat1, and only then. So it's 5% success rate. Oh, also Marshals often get +2 to hit by surrounding enemies to get them Off-Guard (Flat footed), but spellcasters do not have such benefits. So as a spellcaster your best bet is to buff a Fighter in the party. 7) Flexible Initiative with different skills is actually cool and that is one thing in Pathfinder that imho works really well. And Dex is not the king stat as in d&d 8) Everything gives like +1 / +2. So it does not matter that much, compared to Advantage/Disadvantage. It flattens out the drama. 9) It's funny that Emily picked a lot of funny spells I had on my characters. What you realise after playing the system for a year or so, that the system actually punishes you for picking such spells. You would fail them often or they would not come into play enough to be useful. A general advice if you want to continue to play, is pick a spell by the effect on enemy save success, because it is a more likely outcome in Pathfinder. And also, you can buy staves and wands or even scrolls for a situationally useful spells, not to waste your highly limited resources. 10) About crit success and crit failure - the math for a more difficult encounter also balanced so that you as a player would mostly miss, while the enemy would often crit you. Mathematically it works, but as a player, it just does not feel right, that you miss a lot. It's absolutely not like in D&D. Every nice thing in Pf is already balanced in and expected from you by default,so you don't get anything extra, compared to d&d5e, you get much less, if you don't pick the most optimised options (like role-play spells, for example) 11) oh, if you hate Stun condition in D&D - it's much much more of a problem in Pathfinder (at higher levels). Because all of your control spells do not work on the enemies, but enemies really easily control you, because of the point above and Incapacitation. Grapples without checks and mathematically impossible DC to Escape, Suggestion spells, that stop you from playing all together and no way to Dispel it, because of how low the chance of it is. Oh boy, prepare for misery. 12) Yeah, crafting is also a really weak skill and you can't do a lot of things with that. It's very under-developed. 13) Murph's idea about rules and +1s in Pf is absolutely correct, yeah, lol. 14) Shield is cool in Pathfinder, I agree with that. You can look up Everything Shields on Pathfinder Infinite that improves this part of the game even more. 15) Shoving into flanking position is not the play in Pf, unfortunately. Because Grapple, Trip and Shove are all Attacks, so it raises your MAP. So you'd get -3 compared to a normal Strike. That's another example of how the design and options are great in theory, but in practice it does not work. "Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" is what some people say about the system, and after playing for a whole year, I unfortunately agree. And yes, Shoving does not make someone Prone, it is Trip. 16) Rogues get bonus to damage not because of stealth, but because of Off-guard (flanking). So you just walk around the enemy to be on the opposite side from your buddy. 17) Ok, most of creatures not having Reacting Strike (Attack of Opportunity) is actually a big improvement imho, because it makes the battles more dynamic, that is a plus to Pathfinder. And Step as an action to avoid AoO is nice. 18) The things Murph is worried about: keeping track of stuff is impossible in actual play above level 5. I've played up to level 16 and I absolutely have no idea how to play this system just with pencil and paper. There are so-so many NESTED conditions that you have to track, that I just don't know how to do it offline. I would probably keep FoundryVTT open all the time to roll, so that it would calculate everything. Because to calculate 4 bonuses enemy has and 7 conditions and 5 bonuses you have on every turn is a nightmare. It is Mathfinder in the end. In the end, I am glad that you are enjoying the new system! It's always a great thing to learn new stuff. And I'm looking forward to this journey you have. I'd like to be wrong about the system, but I don't think I am, unfortunately. It is absolutely a wonderful system for dungeon crawling, if you are into this. And that is why Beginner Box is basically a dungeon crawl, and the most favourite Pathfinder Adventure Path - Abomination Vaults - is also a massive dungeon crawl. But personally I am not into such kind of play and I do not think it's the best system for role-play heavy actual play podcasts. I would suggest to look into 13th age system, which is a system designed by lead designers of dnd3e and 4e, but done in a very rules-light do-what-you-want-just-have-fun not corporate design way. And the rulebook is very easy to read, because it's done in conversational way and the designers argue on how to do something in the book and show two different versions, lol Or maybe look into Tales of the Valiant, which is a new interpretation of dnd5e by Kobold Press. Once again, sorry for the long post and sorry that it probably reads so negatively and not hospitable. I'm just very passionate about ttrpg game design and wished Pathfinder worked as advertised for my kind of games. Sorry once again, and love you all, thank you for what you do! <3

Great episode! I'm a big pathfinder 2e stan. Next time around might be worth looking into treat wounds action. It's a 10 minute activity (but you can get a feat to use it as 2 actions) that basically lets you heal someone for 2d8 if you succeed on a DC15 medicine roll.

Not finished with the EP yet but the secret insight checks I think is to keep players from subconsciously altering their play because they know they rolled poorly or rolled well on an insight check, also it's to help alleviate a party trying to roll essentially the same insight check multiple times, fishing for a larger roll so as to be more secure in the information gleaned

I've basically implemented "secret rolls" into my DnD campaign! Due to how much high level intruige the party is dealing with I've told my players that I will roll insight for them for key NPCs, on really good rolls I will whisper secret info to them, or feed them bad intel on bad rolls. I think it helps avoid someone rolling a 1 and the whole table knowing that the opposite of what they hear is true

You can cast a cantrip and a leveled spell in 5e on the same round! Just one has to be a Bonus Action.

Also if you're really into the heist idea pathfinder has some cool heist mechanics with their Infiltration subsystem! Definitely worth checking out.

This was awesome. I really love pf2e and listening to y'all talk about it (thorns and all!) was awesome. Really looking forward to more, I'd LOVE if y'all did a 10 episode arc.

It's been so awesome seeing you guys try this out! You can use treat wounds between combats to get lots of non magical healing, which acts like short rests. It's a daunting system to start but I find it takes a ton of weight off the DM as levels increase which makes it way easier to run despite being more theoretically complicated.

Hey! As a Pathfinder 2e GM of many years now, I'd like to share some insights re: your discussion of Aid being a little weak. First, part of it is definitely a result of being level 1. The default Aid DC is 15(though I often set it as "slightly easier than the DC of the check itself" to better scale with higher levels), which is around 50/50 for a trained PC at level 1, but becomes extremely easy to hit or crit as you increase in level and in proficiency. On that point, the higher your proficiency, the greater the bonus you give when critting on Aid! It still stays pretty low, but that's really because it's a reaction, intended for use in encounters. For exploration, you would use Follow the Expert! It wouldn't have worked in the exact situation, but if Hellbiscuit was an Expert in Athletics, then Cinnamon and Krudbert would be able to follow his lead, effectively becoming proficient in the given skill checks as long as they followed Hellbiscuit's lead. I'm a huge PF2e mark, and y'all are one of my favorite D&D podcasts, so I'm really glad to see y'all approaching the game with such open minds and hearts, and I'm extremely pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourselves overall!

That seashell of sound makes for great Talkboy™ shenanigans.

Hell yeah! Really enjoyed hearing about how you all felt about PF2e. It's been my preferred system for a few years now, and it seems I feel a lot like Murph about it. That is, while the system itself is mechanically tight, there are a few sticking points (especially while learning) that could use some sanding-down where actual play is concerned. Looking forward to next week's episode! Big props to Caldwell for taking the leap and giving it a shot! As an aside, I'd like to throw out a tip that helped me conceptualize stuff like the Aid action. When I'm running a game, if a player says they want to lower someone down a ledge with a rope, I just treat that as an Athletics check in place of the other person climbing. Makes sense to me, and keeps your +0 Wizard from falling down a cliff because a +1 wasn't enough to make a difference.

As a DM of many many years across a few platforms, this really confirmed that this system sounds like an absolute nightmare and super validated my lifelong aversion to pathfinder These guys make it fun but they could make licking paint a hilarious adventure

The thing that feels counterintuitive particularly when you first start playing Pathfinder second edition, with plus one seeming, weak is that every plus one is a 10% increase for a critical which means that they matter a lot more than they do in other systems.

Sick

Haha wonderful timing likely just finished the previous episode 10 second ago. Love the funky spells like dazzling your enemy with an exaggerated injury, very different vibe from 5e!

Let’s go baby!