Me (DM) and my friends will be trying out the beginner box this weekend. There are 2 players and myself as the DM.
Is there anything we should do before we play? We’ve played D&D 5e a couple times but this will be our first go at Pathfinder.
Thank you!
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I’m running Abomination Vaults right now and ran the BB before that. Not sure if you plan on doing this, but if you do, you can also sprinkle in the Troubles in Otari adventures for some extra flavour and to break up the dungeon crawl. I’ve been using https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/418672 and can’t recommend it enough. It does a great job of tying it all together and fleshes out a lot of the history and NPCs in town.
I just recently ran the BB as my first foray into pf2e coming from 5e. I would recommend you watch some of the videos on the “How it’s Played” YouTube channel. Particularly get a sense of the three action economy, the basics of combat, and the way that the 3 modes of play work.
Other than that, since you’re playing with only 2 players, I’d recommend you tone down the difficulty of the beginner box. It’s tuned for 4 players but my players nearly tpk’d multiple times and actually did tpk against the final boss, and they were 5 people. PF2e is really tactical and challenging, and 2 players will be at a big disadvantage for much of the BB. There’s no chance IMO that 2 PCs can kill the final boss.
The great thing about PF2 is that it gives really clear instructions on how to modify encounters for different numbers of players. That said, two players will be a bit of a challenge just in terms of available skills. The BB is designed to leverage the skills of the four pre-gen characters, so missing certain core skills will make certain encounters very difficult. The other option would be to have each player run two characters, but that might be a lot for new players.
While the encounter building rules are definitely robust, they aren’t necessarily straightforward for modifying an existing encounter in a published adventure. Especially not for a beginner who hasn’t played the game before.
The beginner box has been my first first into Pathfinder and it’s been really helpful for learning how to GM. Some things I noted while running it:
- You will probably be surprised at how little content the players get through in a session.
- I know others have noted how challenging combat can be for the players, but I’ve seen the opposite in my group, and it’s only a party of 3. This may have to do with the party’s composition, and it may have to do with me not playing the monsters super effectively. I dunno. But an easy fight is a lot more fun than a TPK.
- For lvl1 characters, when in doubt it’s a DC 14
- Your should encourage your players to not use all three actions attacking. I printed a “menu” of common actions like aid and demoralize to encourage more teamwork.
- Similarly, have a few examples of Exploration and Downtime activities to suggest if your players aren’t sure what they want to do.
- Look up how Treat Wounds works. If your group is coming from D&D, they might expect short rests to just happen, but in Pathfinder you need to plan a bit. If nobody is trained in medicine, your group may be stuck with long rests.
- If any of your group uses a shield, you should recommend the Crafting skill so they can repair it
- Be sure to use the stat blocks in the BB Gamemaster’s Guide. Some monsters with the same name can be found in other books, but are much tougher there (Xulgaths)
- The trap master kobold barely has any time to actually set traps in combat. I recommend picking a few spots on the map where they have already been set, and having the kobolds conspicuously walk around them while approaching the party.
- The fountain trap is both too tough and too easy to simply walk past. I recommend reducing the hardness of the corner devices and inventing some way to trap the players in the room.
- Lastly, don’t be afraid to redesign some of the encounters to play into your party’s backstory. Some parts of the dungeon layout are pretty nonsensical, so just change them to something that will engage your players. Good luck!!