How to Switch To Pathfinder II from D&D 5e

5e is in a bit of a trouble spot right now and many playgroups are scrambling to find a new home. Paizo’s latest system has a lot going for it, but just what does Pathfinder 2nd edition entail for your games? Pathfinder has always been the frontrunning rival to D&D, is now the time they take the front seat? We’re going to go through all the big changes you’ll feel making the shift from 5e D&D to Pathfinder 2e. Get ready to blaze those trails as we go through everything you need to know. Monthly Dice Subscription: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/rpg-dice-subscription Amazing dice every month, no repeats. Andrar's Vault is Open - Over 100 Unique Magic Items: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/andrars-vault
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Pizo's latest system has a lot goingfor it. But just what does Pathfind
your second edition entail for your games? And more to the point, what
does it entail that's different from runningfive V every week? Well, As
someone that likes a lot of aspectsof Pathfinder second Edition, I'm kind of
excited to talk about I'm excited totalk about most of Pathfinder second Edition,

(00:20):
so let's get into it. Botheditions of Pathfinder have a lot of the
same roots as D and D,so you'll find a lot of familiar rules
and themes. Pathfinder is a differentgame, but it's not going to be
a radically drastic change from what youand your group are used to. Pathfinder

(00:42):
is crunchier and more in depth thanfive V, but with similar bones,
and if that sounds appealing, thenPathfinder might be the right fit for your
playgroup. And unlike other smaller systems, Pathfinder two E has a ton of
content for you to play with.D and D only gets a few official
books a year, but Pathfinder printsdozens of new and pains and supplements every
year, much of which is freelyavailable online. Though I will say is

(01:04):
not all great. Pathfinder has twoeditions and they're different enough to both be
viable options. Second Edition cuts downon a lot of rules that bloat the
first edition and fixes some of thebase problems they couldn't address without an overhaul.
This video is going to be coveringsecond edition obviously, but we do
have a video on first edition ifyou'd like to check that out. Some

(01:26):
of you are probably curious what booksyou're going to need, and just like
the first edition, one of Pathfindertwo e's best perks is that all the
information you need is free and easyto find online. Piezo has always held
an unofficial stance when it comes topolicing their content, and they encourage people
to freely distribute the rules. Absolutelyeverything you need is online for free,
and is even conveniently converted into toolsand character creators. If you really prefer

(01:49):
physical books, however, you'll haveto put together a bit of a collection.
To get the base game put together. At bare minimum, you're going
to need the core rule book,the game Mastery Guide, and at least
one of the many bestiaries. Beyondthat, there are a good chunk of
supplementary rules with more character options.Unlike five V, most of these books
introduce whole new classes and to haveall the base options, you're going to

(02:10):
need at least the Advanced Players Guide, Secrets of Magic, Guns and Gears,
Book of the Dead, Dark Archive, Rage of Elements, and I
think that's it as far as whatdice you need. Just like D and
D, Pathfinder two e uses thepolyhedral set of dice A D twenty,
D twelve, two, D tens, D eight, D six, and
D four, so any dice setsyou've picked up for D and D will

(02:30):
work just fine. Here let's gothrough some of the biggest changes you're going
to feel as a DM when youswitch from five V over to Pathfinder,
and one of the main things you'regoing to notice, even on the surface
is hard rules versus soft rules.This is true for the first edition as
well, but it seems amplified inthe second edition of Pathfinder. You're going

(02:51):
to have to get used to learninghard rules rather than getting by with soft
rules. Five V gets away witha lot of spitballing and soft rules like
the advantage and advantage system. Yourarely get into situations where you can't hand
wave away or just improvise a rulein five V. In Pathfinder two,
you really have to stick to theirhard rules a lot more because of how
interconnected everything is. This is especiallyrelevant when it comes to monsters. In

(03:15):
five V I've often fully improvised amonster on the fly, and so much
more than that. In Pathfinder twothere are quite a few class features that
allow players to accurately determine a monster'sweaknesses and stats, and if they don't
line up, your players will beable to see where you fudge the numbers.
If you're the kind of dungeon masterthat has never fudged a role or

(03:36):
has never made stuff up to beginwith, first of all, can I
get the number to your therapist?But second of all, you won't see
much of a change. But ifyou're the kind of DM used to making
everything up on the fly, itmight be a bit jarring. Hey there,
how you do it? I expectedyou to be home so much later.
I'm so sorry my wife's home.Pathfinder two E has a mechanic and

(04:00):
system for everything, which is botha blessing and a curse. Does your
character want to craft an item,there's rules for that, and they may
even have class features that interact withthe mechanic. This means that so long
as you're able to look up areference, you likely won't ever have to
make up a system on the spotlike you often do in five. The
flip side is that you shouldn't improviseyour own stuff because you risk disrupting the

(04:23):
builds your players work so hard tooptimize. This is just the old conflict
between fixed texts and freedom to improvise, And depending on how much you improvise
to begin with, it'll either bea huge shift for your dming style or
you might hardly even notice. Skillactions I know have caught me and other
people off guard. Essentially, pathfineor two has taken some of the more
universal activities traditionally covered by a skillcheck and has created specific actions that typically

(04:47):
utilize skill checks but are their owndistinct thing. For example, we now
have the earn Income action that playerscan take when they have downtime. Earning
income can use skills like craft orperform, and the action as its own
distinct set of rules. This alsocovers quite a few combat actions that work
like this too, such as disarmingopponents or feigning attacks. Mechanically, it's

(05:08):
nice to have these things quantified andrules set for them. Just be aware
that there's more to them now thanjust rolling a skill check. Skill actions
also have their own preset consequences forcrits and fumbles. Rather than leaving the
results up to the DM, eachskill action has its own unique results that
you'll want to be able to quicklyreference. Now, let's go through the

(05:30):
biggest changes you'll feel as a playerswapping from five V over to Pathfinder two
E. Starting with Everything is Feats. If you're used to five V,
you'll be used to getting the majorityof your abilities and features baked into your
class, with extra options from thingslike your race and class. Archetype feats
are an optional rule in five VS, so trading over to Pathfinder two may
be a bit of a jarring transitionwhen you find that everything is feats.

(05:53):
Your ancestry gives you a choice ofancestry feats, your class gives you class
feats. You get skill feats,and magic feats, and combat feats its
feats all the way around. Somany feats. Classes really only provide a
couple foundational features and things like hitpoints and base proficiencies. Beyond that,
their main function is to grant accessto that class's collection of class feats.

(06:15):
But what do all these feats reallyadd up? To everything. Being feats
means your character is more of acollection of options chosen carte blanche from various
lists. This gives you a tonof freedom to design your character how you
want, but it also means youhave a lot more responsibility to design your
character well, which I've always likedRPGs that do that. I think it
forces players to think about their charactersin ways they might not have, both

(06:36):
narratively and mechanically, but anyway.Pathfinder two is a game designed around character
builds, unlike five e's reliance onsimple progression. If you want to do
a specific maneuver or focus on astyle of play, you've got to build
up to it. Many styles andtechniques use a very negative starting point that
you need features to overcome and getgood at. You don't start out capable

(06:57):
by default and pathfind or two andit's up to you to become competent in
accomplishing your goals. And just likein the first edition of Pathfinder, all
these feats have feet trees and you'llneed to plan accordingly to build up to
the feats you really wants. Now, let's talk about the action economy,
and this is something I really likein pathfinder actions and bonus actions are gone.
Now you have three actions you canuse every turn, and everything costs

(07:19):
between one and three actions to perform. There are still free actions like dropping
items and talking, but for themost part, you've got an action resource
and you've got to choose each turnhow to spend them wisely. Now let's
talk big numbers. Just on yourbase starting stats. You'll feel a huge
difference in the numbers. You'll begetting much more frequent ability score increases,
and you should expect to very quicklyget to an eighteen in your most important

(07:42):
ability score with sixteens and fourteens andmost of the other scores. AC is
higher, damages higher, and thebonuses you'll be applying to attacks and skill
checks will all just generally be higher. The targets will be increasing just as
much, and monsters with acs floatingup in the thirties and forties aren't uncommon.
It all balances out in the end, but you're going to have to
get used to rolling a twenty fiveand failing to hit the enemy. Just

(08:05):
be aware of how different the scalingis and shift your expectations accordingly. Now
let's talk class archetypes, which arekind of just a vestigial leftover. In
Pathfinder two, all the classes arejust lists of carni blanche options anyway,
so the need for a defining archetypekind of felled by the wayside. You
still pick an archetype, but mostclass archetypes have boiled down to a single
ability or buff and are essentially justanother feet group to pick from, which

(08:28):
can be a little confusing. Thisisn't bad, exactly. You're still getting
way more freedom to build your charactersthan you're used to. Just don't be
disappointed by the weenie archetype options.This isn't bad exactly, it's just kind
of strange. You're still getting waymore freedom to build your characters than you're
used to. Don't be disappointed bythe frankly archetype options. Now, let's

(08:52):
talk scaling proficiency bonuses. In fiveE, you have one gradually increasing proficiency
bonus and it has exactly two tiers. You're either proficient in something or you
aren't. Pathfinder two, for astart, grants way bigger proficiency bonuses than
you'll be used to, and youhave five tiers of proficiency to work with
untrained, no bonus trained your levelplus two Expert your level plus four,

(09:15):
Master your level plus six, andLegendary which is your level plus eight.
And now let's talk bonus types.A lot of Pathfinder boils down to picking
some type of attack or ability andgetting bonuses for it as high as possible.
Pathfinder two has a bit of abuilt in limitter to the min maxing,
though, due to the restrictions onthe bonus types, each bonus to
your roles will either be a circumstancebonus, an item bonus, or a

(09:37):
status bonus based on where you gotit from. The trick here is that
you can only ever apply the highestbonus of a bonus type to any given
role. You can stack up abonus of each type, but once you've
got two from these same type,the lower ones essentially get wasted. For
example, let's say you're getting aplus four bonus to arcana checks from a
magic hat. You picked up aplus two bonus to arcana checks from a

(09:58):
wanderer wielding plus one bonus to arcanafrom a class ability. Because both your
hat and one are providing an itembonus, only the higher bonus applies.
This means you'd add the plus fourbonus from the HAT and the plus one
bonus from your class ability, butyou wouldn't be able to also add the
plus two from the wand since it'salso an item bonus. Now, let's

(10:18):
talk about another thing I sort oflike in Pathfinder two. Degrees of success
krits and fumbles. Krits and fumbleswork a bit differently in Pathfinder two and
have a lot more to do withthe DC of any given check, not
to mention they can happen on skillchecks as well as attacks. Pathfinder two
distinguishes between crucial failures, failures,successes, and critical successes and puts them
all on a scale they call degreesof success. If you roll and meet

(10:41):
the DC of a check, yousucceed. If you roll under it,
you fail. However, if youexceed the DC by ten or more you
instead score a critical success, andif you roll under the DC by ten
or more, you score a criticalfailure. And honestly, I kind of
know a lot of dms that alreadydo this in five V anyway, so
this not be a big transition foryou. Exactly what all these degrees of

(11:03):
success do depends on the check,but most actions have explicit results predetermined for
each degree of success. What wetraditionally think of as krits and fumbles still
matter, though. Whenever you rolla twenty on a D twenty, it
shifts your result one further up thescale, and whenever you roll a one
it shifts your result down one onthe scale. This typically means a natural
twenty is usually a critical success,but if rolling a twenty still wouldn't hit

(11:26):
the DC, you only score asuccess since you shifted one scale up from
failure to success. Conversely, thismeans a natural one is usually a critical
failure, but if rolling a onewould still pass the DC for some reason,
you'd only score a regular failure.For example, let's say you're fighting
an ancient red dragon and are probablyabout to die, but you roll a

(11:48):
natural twenty. Firing your longbow atit. You add plus twelve to your
role from various bonuses for a totalof thirty two for your attack roll.
Well, the dragon has a whoppingforty five AC, which means your attack
ROLELT is still a failure, butbecause you rolled a natural twenty, your
failure results shifts up one degree onthe success scale, changing from a failure
to a success. It's not acritical success, but hey, you still

(12:11):
manage to pierce the dragon's hide,even though it's AC is much higher than
your maximum result. Now, let'stalk about how video gaming Pathfinder two is.
Because it is. It did avery good job of consolidating abilities and
keywords. Practically everything you can doin the game uses the same standardized format,
has an action cost, and oneor more of the universal tags that

(12:31):
permeate the system. There's no fundamentaldifference between casting a spell and performing a
spin kick as a monk. It'sall just effects and costs using the same
template. From a game perspective,this is fantastic and you'll have far fewer
rules arguments well hopefully with the clean, standardized language behind everything. From a
tabletop RPG perspective, though, you'llfind Pathfinder two feels very video gaming,

(12:56):
and this is often the most commonnote and criticism of the system that jibs
with you in your DM style orthe way that you like to play tabletop
RPGs. Great, just be awarethat the feeling of standardized and mechanical weight
fills out everything in this system.This is a tip from everyone here at
skull Splitter. Use the online toolsfor this system, because, more than

(13:16):
any other I've ever played Pathfinders secondeditions, online tools and character builders make
play in character creation a breeze.Everything's free online, inconvenient and easy to
understand websites and apps. Features popup with full explanations and rules automatically filtered
for what your character can and can'ttake. Handy rules and references are a
click away rather than buried in booksand guides or perhaps paywalls. I can't

(13:41):
overstate how high quality these tools areand how easy they make the experience,
And as someone that plays a lotof old RPGs that have no online support
whatsoever, I'm just coming to cherishthese a whole lot more when they're in
systems like Pathfinders second Edition that reallyneed them. Let's go through some Pathfinders
second Edition FAQs real fast, startingwith can't I use Pathfinder first Edition content

(14:05):
in Pathfinders Second Edition and sadly no, not really. There are enough of
the same foundations that you can probablyget away with converting things, but especially
with how they change the action economy, they really are different games. Adventure
paths and monsters are probably the easiestto convert, but class features and abilities
should really be left behind. Whichof the two editions is more complex.

(14:26):
It's a bit of a toss up, honestly, but I think when you
weigh everything, Pathfinders Second Edition ismore streamlined compared to the first edition.
The writers benefited from the years ofrefinding Pathfinder first edition and the second one
has a lot of moving parts,but they're all designed to work together from
the ground up, rather than beingbuilt into something of a shaky foundation like
with first edition. Just like withthe first edition of Pathfinder, Pathfinder second

(14:52):
Edition has a lot more crunch thanfive and a much deeper swath of character
customization options. Two has fewer toysto play with, but gains a much
more refined rules set and fantastic onlinetools to simplify the process. I would
not recommend Pathfinder two for a group'sfirst system, not by a long shot,
but as a second or third systemto try after getting bored of five

(15:13):
E or Fantasy Flight, Star Warsor a few other RPGs or something like
that. It's perfect to try ifyou're happy with a heavier and more video
gaming rules system. You'll be rewardedwith deep combat and well designed interconnected mechanics.
Thank you guys so much for watchingI really appreciate it. Be sure
to like and subscribe because we putout new content like this all the time,
and if you and your gaming groupare going to be giving Pathfinder second

(15:35):
Edition to try, I would loveto hear about it down in the comments,
as well as any other RPGs orsystems that you guys are trying out
that you think deserve well the skullSplitter breakdown, Thanks again for watching.
I am Patrick Ferguson from skull Splitter. Dice end. Until next time, farewell,