An introduction to PF2 for DND Players

Highlighting the main differences when moving from Playing Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition to Pathfinder Second Edition (PF2) game.

Common, Uncommon and Rare Tags

To help with game balance some Feats, Spells and equipment will have an Uncommon or Rare tag.  Such items or abilities are not readily available to everyone.  Quests may be required to discover them or they may just not be available in a particular campaign.  For Example the Teleport Spell is uncommon as are Shuriken.  Some Feats can give access to Uncommon items; for example "Monastic Weaponry" gives Monk's access to Shuriken along with many other weapons.

Checks

The basic mechanic is the same for both games.  Roll a single twenty sided dice (d20) and work out the result by adding any modifiers and then compare it to the Difficult Class (DC) or Target Number you need to succeed.  This is used for Attack Rolls, Skill Checks and Saving Throws.

d20 + Attribute Modifier + Bonuses and Penalties = Result

Critical Success/Failure

Until 5th Edition the final result can be a critical even if you do not roll a natural 20!  You just have to exceed the DC by ten, you can also end up with critical failure too.  When you roll a natural 20 (or natural 1) the result is one degree of success better (or worse) than it would have been.

• Critical Success: You exceed the DC by 10 or more.
• Success: You meet or exceed the DC.
• Failure: Your result is lower than the DC.
• Critical Failure: Your result is lower than the DC by 10 or more.

Hero Points vs Inspiration

PF2 characters start each game session with 1 Hero Point and can gain more up to a maximum of three Hero Points at any one time.  A single Hero Point can be used to reroll any check or all current Hero Points, minimum 1, can be spent to avoid dying.

Saving Throws

There are three types of saving throw in Pathfinder: 

• Fortitude: For overcoming something through your body’s endurance.
• Reflex: For quickly dodging.
• Will: For mentally resisting something.

Basic Saving Throws

Some spells and other effects that deal damage ask you to roll a basic saving throw.  You roll a basic saving throw the same as any other save but you use the following outcomes to determine how much damage you take.

• Critical Success: You take no damage.
• Success: You take half the listed damage.
• Failure: You take the full listed damage.
• Critical Failure: You take double the listed damage.

Actions

Instead of having an Action; Bonus Action and Move in each combat round you get three actions.  Single actions are the simplest and most common actions. You can use three single actions on your turn, in any order you want.  Some activities take longer than a single action. For example most spells cost two actions to cast.

Moving and attacking, called a Strike, are both single action activities as is drawing a weapon.  This does mean you could even attack three times in a round.  The downside is that each strike beyond the first has a penalty to the check!  It is rarely worth attacking three times as a third attack has a -10 modifier.  The good news there are lots of uses for skills in combat as well as movement that gives plenty of options to use for a third action on a round.  For example Deception lets you feint and get your opponent off guard and Intimidation lets you frighten an opponent.  Both of these would give the target a penalty to its Armour Class making it easier to be hit.

Attack of Opportunity

Unlike D&D most heroes and monsters are not training to be able to deliver a Reactive Strike when someone moves.  Only about one in ten monsters will react if you move or cast a spell when being in melee combat with them.  This gives greater tactical flexibility.

Shields

Everyone is trained in how to use a shield for defence.  In PF2 you have to spend an action to raise your shield in order to get the +2 bonus to Armour Class.  Just carrying it around does nothing.  Some classes have extra training with shields allowing them to block attacks and reduce incoming damage.  Wizards are also able to this with the Shield spell that works in a similar way.

Spellcasting

Pathfinder includes a mix of different types of spells as well as four traditions of magic that determine what kind of spells a caster has access to.  The number of spells per day can also vary by class.

Prepared or Vancian Casters

Wizards ,Witches, Clerics and Druids are prepared casters.  At the start of each day they have to select what spells they are going to prepare in each spell slot.  This will be familiar to anyone who played older editions of D&D from 1st to 3rd.

Spontaneous Casters

Bards and Sorcerers are spontaneous casters.  They have a smaller number of known spells and each time they cast a spell can decide which spell to cast.  This will be familiar to 5th Edition players as the standard way spellcasting is handled.

Focus Spells

Every spellcaster also has one or more Focus Spells.  These are similar to a Warlock's spell slots in the fact they come back when a character takes a short rest.  Focus spells are also used to represent a Monk's Ki powers or Champion (Paladin) laying on hands to heal the injured.

Ritual Spells

A ritual is an esoteric and complex spell that anyone can cast. It takes much longer to cast a ritual than a normal spell, but rituals can have more powerful effects.  Spells such as Wish, Commune and Create Undead are all Rituals in Pathfinder.  There casting is measured in days rather than actions and they require material components and multiple casters.  For example Resurrect is an uncommon Ritual that requires three casters.

Art from Victor Maristane on ArtStation.