canyonwalker | (Reply)

From:

I do like the action economy in PF3. It is more cohesive, and actually simpler than D&D 3.x— in its structure. 3 actions per turn, almost everything is an action (or multiple actions). There's no differentiating Standard actions vs. Move actions vs. Move-equivalent actions, and few opportunities for players to whine to the GM about what ought to count as a free action vs. a move equivalent— because very few things are Free.

The place where I see PF2 getting complicated is in the sheer number of alternatives available to characters. A huge variety of feats give players a huge variety of options— and many of them introduce one-off rules, concepts, and or state information the player and GM have to track.

For example, as I'm playing a Swashbuckler, I have Panache. It powers my special attack form. There are at least 5 different ways for a Swashbuckler to gain Panache. My first level character has two of them: one that's standard for all, and one that's based on choices I made in character creation. Then there are various ways that the state of having Panache, once gained, is lost. I had to learn a whole new mechanic specific to this character class, and so did the GM.

Once we absorbed the additional mechanic it seems not hard to apply in combat; at least not in the simple combats of our first playing session. My concern, though, is about scaling. Every character class introduces additional mechanics that must be folded into one's understanding of the game. Even at first level, there is significant variation within each to master. I anticpate at higher levels the range of variability will be increased, likely with new mechanics, too, as higher level feats allow even greater customization.

Customization is great. It helps us get away from the "I'm a fighter, I just play the same attack action over and over" narrowness of play. But the downside of customization is the large and increasing number of rules players must master and all the fiddly bits of state information that must be tracked in combat.