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Second editionPathfinderoffers a tremendous number of options for both GMs and players. The remastered versions of the core books are focused heavily on streamlining the new player experience, but GMing can still be a challenge without good preparation and the right tools.
Combat is one of the three pillars of the system, alongside exploration and downtime. The bulk of the game is centered around combat encounters and this makes it especially important to get right to enable exploration, downtime and roleplaying to run smoothly between combats. This guide will help you through that process until you find your stride.
Creating An Encounter In Pathfinder 2e Remaster
The levels of monsters and NPCs provide a good system for finding an appropriate amount of challenge to a party, but it will need tweaking for your players' and your own personal taste.
One rule of thumb that works generally is to run an encounter with either:
This creates a moderate challenge bracket encounter for most levels but needs some adjustments.At first level, especially, throwing out a monster two levels greater than the party can exceed their abilities.Check the monster you’ve picked out for any of the following complications and see what changes may be needed:
Solutions
Abilities That Require Specific Counters
Trolls can only be killed with fire or acid, and will otherwise regenerate.
If the party does not have or does not know the appropriate counter,the encounter becomes unwinnable.
Provide opportunities to escape if they cannot win and make sure they have a path to discover the solution (such as via recall knowledge checks).
The party is larger or smaller than four people
The party splits up, and only half the group enters combat
Combat becomes too difficult or too easy.
you may alsouse elite or weak variants of an existing creatureto adjust the difficulty on the fly (especially if using a virtual tabletop).Most challenge calculators have a field for adjusting the difficulty by the number of players.
A variant ruleset makes the players stronger
The Free Archetype optional rule gives the players numerous extra feats.
Combat becomes less challenging
Most variant rulesets give the characters more options and resources instead of direct power increases. You can manage these extra resources byrunning more encounters between daily preparations.
An assortment of encounter-building tools can generate level-appropriate combats for a party. However, moststill require a good deal of GM input: Picking out the right family of enemy to make logical sense for a location, distributing loot appropriately, and deciding on tactics and objectives of the monsters are all important considerations that cannot be automated.
Another part of designing the encounter is creating a suitable arena. There areonline collections of battle maps that can be imported to virtual tabletops or printedfor a live game, along with tools for designing your own. Looking over your map ahead of time allows you toconsider potential interactions between the combatants and the terrain,such as high ground or cover.
Preparing For Combat In Pathfinder 2e Remastered
Give opportunities for players to make use of their relevant skills in the lead-up to combat: A rogue will want to hide before combat so they can use their stealth for initiative, while a caster may wish to use a buffing spell before the combat starts. Some characters may wish to make a recall knowledge check if they have foreknowledge of what the encounter contains.
The remastered ruleset of Recall Knowledge does not require the player to guess the correct recall knowledge type for the enemy andno longer requires the GM to give false information on a critical failure. The player might still suggest the most appropriate type of check to make, such as religion if they believe the opponent to be a spirit.
You can give a thematic modifier to reward them if they deduce correctly, such as plus 2 for recalling knowledge about the creature. The player will still need to state what they are aiming to recall about an opponent: They mightask for damage vulnerabilities, which of its saving throws is the weakest,or how much damage it can sustain.
The best way to handle these combat preparations is tomake use of exploration activities. These involve the players traveling at half speed or less to enter combat with additional preparations and bonuses. Here are some sample actions for common archetypes:
Rogue
Avoid Notice
Enters next combatusing stealth for initiativeand for an attempt to remain hidden.
Investigator
Search
Investigators begin with expert-level perception, making them well suited to finding traps, hidden passages, and other concealed itemsof interest.
Wizard
Repeat A Spell
Recasts a cantrip or sustains a spell while exploring. This may be a spell to help with exploration, such asdetect magic, or a spell you want ready during combat, such as Shield. Most spellscannot be sustained longer than 10 minutes, and recasting even a cantrip for long periods will cause fatigue.
Ranger
Scout
At the start of the next encounter,your party all gain a +1 circumstance bonus to initiative.
Fighter
Defend
Enters next combat with shield already raised, gaining its bonus to AC.
How To Make Combat Exciting In Pathfinder 2e Remastered
The three-action per turn economy, combined with the penalty for consecutive strikes,encourages players to interact with the environment and each other instead of standing across from each other and making only attacks. Groups new to Pathfinder, especially converts from other systems,may have teething issues as they learn what interactions they can and cannot do.
As a GM, you can create opportunities by describing things in the environment they can make use of. You can alsolead by example and have enemies, demonstrating the advantages of this type of team play.
Some helpful actions that do not incur a multiple-attack penalty are:
Other non-strike actions will still increase the multiple-attack penalty, but they are still useful:
Running Combat Encounters In Pathfinder 2e Remastered
Once you have rolled initiatives, you’ll want combat to move fluidly. The players only have to fully understand their own character sheets, while as GM, you’ll need to consider each of the creatures under your control. It can help keep a shortlist of abilities and actions that monsters can take: Unless something prompts a special response, you’re able to have them take their pre-planned tactics.
A trollhound may have the following shortlist:
Depending on how you’re running it, there will be tools to limit how much of this you need to remember.Most virtual tabletops will record HP, AC, and saving throws, whilesome may apply damage resistances and weaknesses automatically.
The macros attached to actions such as attacking will either include effects automatically or include text reminding you to apply them. Do some tests before the session to know which modifiers are applied automatically and which you must manually account for.
Resolving Combat In Pathfinder 2e Remastered
You can keep your players on their toesby not exiting initiative order the moment the last enemy is defeated, but once you decide to end combat, it is good to remember what happens next. Here is a helpful checklist of points to resolve after ending a combat.
Some circumstances allow a player todo multiple exploration activities at once. A cleric can refocus while tending to wounds, while a wizard might be able to identify magic items while refocusing.
