Hello, title. I have been playing pf2e coming on 2 years now. Unfortunately, I have never enjoyed character creation or progression in this system. I like playing with my group, but would rather never again make a decision when it comes to character options.

I am surprised because it seems like there are very few written resources or videos which just make a build with feats/spells chosen, retraining recommendations by level, etc. Any recommendations?

  • Buffman@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    6 months ago

    I think it can be hard to provide a definitive guide that makes all the choices for you because the campaign you’re playing will significantly influence your choices. Does your campaign go from level 1-20 or some range in between? Will you have downtime to retrain? Are you playing with variant rules? Will you be expecting a lot of combat (and what creatures) or is it more RP heavy? What are your companion builds and how many are there?

    Most guides I’ve read will provide general advice and usually a rating of skills/feats/abilities with caveats or notes on when something might be better or worse.

    That said, I’ve found RPGBot usually has decent guides (not sure if they’ve been updated for the remaster). Your best resource right now (until more content is on Lenny) is probably Reddit.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.caEnglish
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    6 months ago

    What is it you don’t like about the character creation process? Is it that there are too many choices? That you feel the need to make the “optimal” choice?

    • Kayday@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
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      6 months ago

      Basically, yeah. It feels like any time I pick a feat or spell, it’s just bad. Every combat I feel useless. I asked some of the more savvy players in my group for help, and we completely revamped my character sheets and handwaived it as a giant retrain. Now my characters don’t suck, but I also feel detached from them because the options I picked for my character concepts aren’t part of the build anymore.
      That’s why I was hoping to find a library of characters that I could pick from, to at least find one I can get behind.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.caEnglish
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        6 months ago

        Hmmm… I see. Unfortunately it’s not that simple to give a “library” because unlike other games, there are very few clear choices in PF2e characters. Most of the time, the thing that has the biggest impact on what choices you should make is the makeup of your party, the specific adventure you are playing, and the character concept you are trying to realize. It’s hard to do the same sort of “white room” theorycrafting that you see in games like D&D 5e for example.

        I’m surprised you feel useless though. As long as you make some basic decisions in character creation like maxing out your primary stat and picking one or two actions you plan to do during combat, you should be okay. Pathfinder is tough but it doesn’t really punish bad choices in character creation. Can you maybe give an example of an encounter where you didn’t feel like you contributed a lot (and why you felt that way)?

    • dodos@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      6 months ago

      Not OP, but these are the two problems I run into in any crpg / arpg / trpg I play. I also find when I try to avoid stressing over it I end up too under powered to actually do anything in the game in playing. Very open to advice if you have any!

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.caEnglish
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        6 months ago

        The reason I asked about those two things specifically was because in PF2E, it’s very difficult to make a “wrong” choice. Most of your power comes directly from leveling up, not from feats. So my advice would be not to stress about what the optimal choice is for minmaxing and instead to focus on the best choice to realize your concept of your character.