Session Zero: Character & World Building [TEST]

Classes

Alchemist

Barbarian

Bard

Champion

Cleric

Druid

Fighter

Gunslinger

menu_book How to Play Pathfinder 2e

Pathfinder 2nd Edition’s core mechanic is rolling a 20-sided die, adding any bonuses or modifiers from a character’s abilities, skills, and proficiencies, and comparing the result to a target number set by the Game Master to determine if a given action succeeds or fails. A character’s abilities come from a combination of their ancestry, class, attributes, and training, all of which players can fully customize from a sprawling selection of options. Using your character's skills in Pathfinder 2e uses the core mechanic, and also the game's proficiency system, whereby your character can be untrained, trained, expert, master, or legend, each conferring an ascending bonus to your roll. Proficiencies will also apply to your character's, armor, reactive defenses called saving throws, weapons, spells, and more! Some of these things even grant additional abilities, bonuses, or uses when your character is trained in them. The combat system is Pathfinder 2e's major update; it uses a "three action economy" that allows players to take three actions on each turn. Maybe that's to move twice and attack, maybe it's to attack three times! Some activities, spells, and skills might cost more than one action to perform due to their complexity. Most attacks use the core mechanic, with the target number being how difficult the opponent is to hit, or their "armor class." Characters score a critical hit when they beat this target number by ten or more. When characters or monsters run out of hit points, they're knocked unconscious, and without aid or healing magic, may die! Pathfinder 2e outlines a number of actions players can take in and out of combat, including exploration and social actions meant for traversing hostile wilderness and delving dangerous dungeons, as well as negotiation with NPCs, offering guidance for how to rule these actions for GMs.