How not to mess up your first Pathfinder 2nd Edit…
How not to mess up your first Pathfinder 2nd Edition character.
A Basic Guide to building PF2e characters, by SatakOz
Yes, I know, this isn’t a scientific paper, but using abbreviations and technical terms without explaining them is bad form regardless, so here is a brief overview of the abbreviations and technical terms I’ll be using throughout.
This guide is meant to help newer and players less familiar with the workings of Pathfinder 2nd Edition to avoid some major pitfalls of character building and get the most out of the system. I’ve tried to expand on the core differences between this system and other popular RPG systems, as well as show off some of the options available.
This isn’t an optimisation guide. It is meant to be somewhat basic, avoiding a long list of exceptions to the guidelines present, that more experienced/technical players might feel more comfortable breaking. I’ve intentionally avoided delving too deep into some of the more niche aspects of the system, listing all the exceptions, and all the variants of a given rule.
It is also not a gospel. No statement in this guide is a hard and fast rule, they can, and probably should, be broken at times, for example, not attacking multiple times on your turn goes out the window with a Flurry Ranger. They are only meant to serve as a learning tool, as a base level of knowledge to learn how the system works in general, before attempting to try to find new and interesting things to do within the system.
It is also not American. I am British, so I’ve used British spelling throughout, I’ve not misspelt things.
Percentages are complicated and hard. When I’m talking percentage chances in this document, I’m talking about absolute percentage points, not relative. I.e. When a +1 bonus gives a 5% increase to an attack that has a 50% chance to hit already, it goes to a 55% chance to hit, not 52.5%.
If you get involved in Pathfinder 2e discourse online, you will often hear the maxim “Every +1 Matters”. This will be a key theme throughout this guide, so I thought I’d elaborate on it a bit here, so I’m not repeating myself later.
The crux of this is the Degrees of Success mechanic. When comparing a dice roll to a given DC, beating it by 10 or more, or failing it by 10, results in a Critical Success, or Critical Failure, respectively. Thus, any bonus to a roll not only results in a 5% increase in the chance of a Success (Maths interlude: Because checks are made on a d20, 1/20th of 100 is 5, so a +1 gives a 5% increase in success chance), but also a 5% increase in the chance of a Critical Success. Conversely, penalties increase the likelihood not only of a Failure, but a Critical Failure as well.
As a Critical Success (Or an enemy’s Critical Failure in the case of Saving Throw reliant effects) often results in either a better effect, or double damage, a well-timed Critical can often swing a battle. Indeed, in the case of PCs, being taken down to 0 hit points by a Critical Success, or rolling a Critical Failure, makes you Dying 2, leaving you potentially just one bad roll away from death! (A Critical Failure on your Recovery roll increases your Dying value by 2, to 4, where you die!)
One might think that a mere +1 might pale into insignificance as your level increases, and your bonuses get bigger and bigger. However, creatures and DCs in Pathfinder 2e scale alongside your level, so your chances of success actually remain roughly the same against challenges of your own level as you progress through your career.
Pathfinder 2e is a team game, first and foremost, and this starts from character creation!
The most important part of this is, as with many things in life, Communication.
Ideally, everyone should create their characters together, ensuring that you can support one another, and cover the bases you need to! It is important to consider your party composition in terms of enabling your allies to best use their abilities, your Rogue is going to struggle to perform their best without someone to provide Off-Guard to enable their Sneak Attack, either by flanking or some other means. Your Barbarian might have a lot of hit points, but if they’re the only person in melee, they’re going to be the only target most of the time, and without a healer to patch them up, the enemy is going to come for the much more squishy casters next!
Each party should aim to have someone covering most of the skills available with some major important ones, such as Medicine, Stealth, Thievery, and at least some social skills (Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Society) covered by multiple party members. It is important to note that the party member who can make best use of a skill doesn’t have to be the one that has it. For example, your party’s Fighter could pick up the skills for Recall Knowledge, using them as one of their actions to find out important information for your Sorcerer to best target their spells, and allowing the Sorcerer to perhaps then focus on their Intimidation skill, to Demoralise enemies to make them easier for the Fighter to hit! (as well as better land their own spells).
Some important roles you should consider for your party, and the classes best placed to fulfill them are: -
Again, it is important to note that these roles aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, though it is often better to make sure they are spread around, to make sure that no one character is trying to cover too large a selection of roles, e.g. your Wizard can be both your debuffer, and your knowledgeable character, but they probably also shouldn’t be trying to be your face as well, and definitely shouldn’t be trying to get involved in melee combat.
A kind of addendum to this is: Use your class for its core competency. The nature of how proficiencies and attributes work, within PF2e is that a Wizard will never be as capable in combat as a character who’s Key Attribute is their weapon attack attribute. They will always have at least a +1 advantage over a non-martial, a gap that will widen to a full +4 (or+6 when compared to a Fighter!) over a 20 level career. Parallel to this, a Fighter who takes the Wizard dedication, will never match a Wizard’s spell save DCs. Thus, when choosing a class, aim to choose something that simulates the concept you want, not the name, e.g. a Wizard who likes to hit people can easily be simulated by a Magus, rather than a Wizard trying to wield weapons.
Every class has a listed “Key Attribute” that many of their abilities use to determine their DCs or attack rolls. With very, very rare exception, you should always aim to maximise this attribute at character creation, i.e., a +4 modifier, and then increase it at every attribute upgrade you get (Partial at 5th, +5 at 10th, another Partial at 15th, and +6 at 20th). This will ensure that whatever build you're going for, you will have the best to hit (for martial classes that use weapons, or spell attack for spellcasters) or save DC (for spellcasters) for the level you’re at, regardless of any feat choices you make.
It is important to note this is not “munchkinry” or “min-maxing” in Pathfinder 2e. As mentioned . By avoiding increasing your own effectiveness in such a way, you’ll make yourself feel bad for not being able to feel effective, your team feel bad as you won’t be able to support them adequately, and make your GM’s job harder by making it more difficult to build challenges appropriately.
Beyond this, deciding how to invest in your other attributes is important when depending on what you want from your character. Characters who don’t have either Strength or Dexterity as their key attribute, but want to use weapons regularly will likely want their Strength or Dexterity at a +3 to make sure they are able to use those weapons to the best of their ability.
Each attribute has its own benefits to consider, with Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom being useful for nearly any character due to them benefiting saves for all, HP for Constitution, and Perception checks for Wisdom.
NB: Whilst any skill, in theory, can be used for initiative, the most common initiative roll in Pathfinder 2e is made using Perception.
A brief overview of the benefits associated with each attribute is given in the table below: -
Attribute | Benefits |
Strength | Melee weapon attack rolls. Weapon damage bonus*. Negate penalties from heavier armours. Bulk limits. Athletics skill. |
Dexterity | Finesse and ranged weapon attack rolls. AC. Reflex Saves. Acrobatics, Stealth and Thievery skills. |
Constitution | Hit Points. Fortitude saves. |
Intelligence | Initial number of Trained Skills. Number of known Languages. Arcana, Crafting, Lore, Occultism, and Society skills. |
Wisdom | Will saves. Perception checks. Medicine, Nature, Religion, and Survival skills. |
Charisma | Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation and Performance skills. |
* Melee and Thrown weapons add your full Strength modifier to damage rolls, ranged weapons with the Propulsive trait add half your Strength modifier to damage rolls.
Whilst armour comes in four flavours (Unarmoured, Light, Medium, and Heavy), the most important distinction is actually between Heavy and other classes of armour. This is because Heavy armours can give you a total AC bonus of +6, whereas other types of armour offer a total of +5.
For Unarmoured, Light, and Medium armour, the correct combination of armour and dexterity bonus can provide a base AC of +5, though some may require a little Strength investment to negate their check and speed penalties.
Tip: Even if you don’t meet the Strength requirement, certain armours, such as the Chain Shirt have the Flexible trait, allowing you to ignore its penalty to Acrobatics and Athletics, though some may have other traits that offset this, usually Noisy, so you can never negate the penalty to Stealth.
Concurrently, Heavy armours require less Dexterity investment, but a greater Strength investment to offset the aforementioned penalties, but do provide a greater AC bonus of +6 with the correct Dexterity investment. Of note, the Monk Feat Mountain Quake (which requires both the Mountain Stance and Mountain Stronghold feats), grants the equivalent of Heavy Armour when active (a +4 Item bonus, with a Dex. cap of +2).
Tip: Full Plate in addition to its native AC bonus, also possesses the Bulwark trait. This allows you to add +3 to your Reflex save against damaging effects instead of your own Dexterity modifier, helping further reduce your reliance on Dexterity.
The following table summarises what armours give the maximum bonus for a given dexterity modifier, as well as some examples of what characters might benefit: -
Examples | Dexterity | Armour |
| +5 | Explorer’s Clothing, Bands of Force |
| +4 | Leather |
| +3 | Chain Shirt, Studded Leather |
| +2 | Hide Armour, Scale Mail |
| +1 | Chain Mail, Breastplate, Half-plate* |
| 0 | Full Plate* |
*Heavy Armour, or equivalent
One might note that, for some characters, reaching their ideal threshold will be difficult. A character starting with +3 Dexterity and only unarmoured proficiency, will only reach that “ideal” +5 at Level 15. This usually impacts spellcaster characters who should, ideally be being protected by their martial companions, but if you find yourself worried about the extra 10% chance of being hit and crit, the following options can help mitigate that:
Tip: Characters who start with only Unarmoured proficiency but want to use Heavy armour can take one of the above Dedications to give them proficiency in Light and Medium armour, and then the Armour Proficiency feat to give themselves Heavy armour proficiency.
Unlike other systems, which reward moving up to you for moving up to your foe, remaining there, and making as many attacks as possible, the presence of Multiple Attack Penalty means this is rarely a good idea. The -5 and -10 MAP penalties reduce your chances of hitting by 25% and then a full 50%! Usually, you’ll have a good use for two of your actions on a turn, such as a Stride and a Strike, or a two action Spell. Thus, rather than wasting an action on an attack that is probably going to miss with such a huge penalty, it is better to fully utilise your third action to weaken a foe, or support your allies.
It is important to emphasise that whilst these are often referred to as “third” actions, it is often better to use them first, before you make Strikes, as they apply conditions you can utilise yourself! There are plenty of class actions that can be used here, but if there’s nothing that takes your fancy, some of the following can be slotted into most builds:-
Tip: Using a weapon with the appropriate trait, e.g. Trip for the Trip manoeuvre, allows you to use that manoeuvre without a free hand, and often can offer an alternate penalty of dropping the weapon instead of the normal effect of a critical failure. In addition, if the weapon used for the manoeuvre is Agile, the manoeuvre itself also has reduced MAP just like a regular attack. As your Fist is an Agile weapon this applies to manoeuvres you use with a free hand.
Tip: Frightened decreases at the end of a given enemy’s turn, so it is advantageous to target a foe that is just before you in initiative order, so your allies have as much time as possible to take advantage.
Most characters will have one occupied hand, usually with a weapon, or for spellcasters a stave or wand. But you have two hands! Finding something to occupy that second hand is a really useful way of finding a third action to occupy your time or give more options in combat. Some useful suggestions are as follows: -
Tip: If you want to use a two-handed weapon for extra damage, but also use athletic manoeuvres or your free hand for something else, weapons with the Two-Hand trait give higher damage die when wielded in two hands, but can be wielded in one hand for when you want to use manoeuvres.
Tip: If you’re not using Shield Block, most shields provide a +2 to AC, so the Steel Shield offers no benefit over the lighter, cheaper, Wooden Shield.
Tip: A Buckler functions as a shield that is strapped to the arm, allowing you to use that hand whilst the shield isn’t raised. The trade-off is that it only provides +1 AC when raised, less than a normal shield, as well as lower HP and Hardness, which is worse for Shield Block.
This largely applies to Skills, as oftentimes, versatility is key in other areas, such as spell selection (more on that later). The same logic that applied to your Key Attribute applies here, making sure you have the best bonus for your level. Concurrently, Skill DCs also take into account these expected increases, so maximising them is important for being able to hit these DCs.
For most characters, the Skill Increases available to you (every odd level after 1st), allows you to maximise three Skills (Making them Legendary proficiency level) over the course of your character’s career, so choosing what these might be is a good idea early on. As mentioned earlier, in the introduction about teamwork, deciding these as a party is a good plan, to make sure all your bases are covered.
Rogues and Investigators, who get increases every level, can maximise a total of six Skills, with one increase left over (for a total of Six skills at Legendary, and one at Expert). Swashbucklers get additional increases that allow them to maximise either Acrobatics or their Style’s Skill in addition to the regular three (though it's probably a good idea for them to maximise both).
Whilst not an absolute essential, having an ability that gives you a reaction helps you make the most of combat, even when it’s not your turn!
Some classes have some brilliant in-built reactions, such as the Fighter’s Reactive Strike, the Champion’s Cause reactions, the Swashbuckler’s Opportune Riposte, or some of the Thaumaturge’s implements. Many Martial classes can pick up feats early on in their careers that give them a combat reaction, such as the Barbarian’s No Escape, and many can even pick up Reactive Strike, or an equivalent, later on, showcasing just how strong it can be!
Many classes start with the Shield Block reaction available to them, helping them to mitigate damage against themselves whilst they have a shield raised (which, as previously mentioned is a good use for your Third Action!), but any character can acquire it with a General Feat, and can really help those with lower hit points survive!
Tip: Shield Block is best used against lower damage hits than larger ones, as any damage not negated by your shield’s Hardness is also dealt to your shield, meaning blocking larger hits risks breaking your shield!
NB: The spell Shield can also be used as a reaction to block damage, even if you don’t have the Shield Block feat, and can even block damage from spells! However, once used to block in this way, it can’t be cast again for 10 minutes.
Many Ancestries can also provide some very powerful reactions through both Heritages and Ancestry Feats, be that the Ancient-Blooded Dwarf’s Call on Ancient Blood or the Gnomes’ Unexpected Shift feat. These can be very useful if you want to focus your class and skill feats to a specific purpose.
Characters investing in any of the magical skills (Arcana, Nature, Occultism or Religion), or ideally, multiple of them, can also pick up the Recognise Spell Skill Feat, which allows them to identify the spells opponents are casting if their tradition matches the chosen skill. This is very handy for learning your foe’s capabilities, and on a Critical Success, can even give you bonuses to AC or saves against the incoming spell!
For spellcasters, there is a slowly growing selection of spells that can be used as reactions that can supplement your repertoire, usually helping you to avoid incoming effects (like Interposing Earth), interfere with your foe’s actions (like Lose the Path), or punish foes for hurting you (like Blood Vendetta).
Many and varied are the foes you will face in PF2e, and not every tool, be that weapon, spell, or other, is appropriate for every enemy!
This an absolute priority for Spellcasters and, to a lesser extent, Kineticists. The difference between a foe’s lowest save and their highest is normally around +6, and can be as high as +9! By having a spell that can target an enemy’s lowest save, you’re increasing your chances of success (or their failure) by 30%!
Oftentimes, you'll be able to make a fairly well-educated guess as to what the weakest or best save of a foe might be (“Hey, that lumbering troll probably isn't going to be able to dodge very well, but it's tough as heck, so it's probably got a strong Fortitude save but a weak Reflex save”). However, as mentioned earlier, Recall Knowledge can be really useful here, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a foe to decide the appropriate spell against a foe.
Similarly, whilst it might be tempting to invest in only one type of damage, coming up against a fire elemental who’s immune to fire when you only have fire spells available is really going to put a dampener on your day (ironically). Even martials can get in on this action, plenty of low level monsters have resistance to different physical damage types, your trusty longsword might cut through most things, but skeletons will need a bludgeoning weapon to crack those bones!
Having an attack that can trigger an opponent’s weaknesses is a fantastic way of doing a lot of damage very quickly, be that fire spells against ice creatures, bludgeoning weapons against skeletons, or many of the other creatures with vulnerabilities in PF2e. Alchemists are very good here, as their bombs can target a wide array of damage types, and often deal Persistent Damage, which will trigger an enemy’s weakness every time it triggers!
We all know adventuring is a great way of earning a lot of money very quickly, but don’t hoard all that gold like the dragon you took it off! Spend it!
As we’ve mentioned earlier, the scaling enemy’s statistics take into account certain bonuses and increases. The last of these expected bonuses is gear.
For most characters, this means Potency Runes, Striking Runes, and Resilient Runes. Potency Runes augment your weapons and armour, increasing their bonus to hit, and your AC respectively, making them remain competitive against your foes; Striking runes upgrade the damage of your weapons, necessary to get through the increasing amount of hit points those foes have; Resilient runes increase your saving throws, helping defend against your enemy’s abilities.
Tip: If you are an Unarmoured character, and are a caster, a Wand of Mystic Armour is cheaper, and available earlier than a +1 Armour Potency Rune, but provides the same benefit.
For spellcasters, who might not be so concerned with augmenting weapons, spending your funds on Staves and Wands is the order of the day. Both expand both your available spells, allowing you to cover a wider variety of situations, and give you more spells to play with over a day. With your Wands you should be looking for longer term buffs that you’ll need less frequently, Wands of Mystic Armour, 2nd Level Tailwind, and other 10-minute buffs, are good things to look for. Staves increase your flexibility, for both prepared and spontaneous casters, granting you access to extra spells beyond your prepared spells or those in your repertoire.
Shield Block users will likely want to invest in Reinforcing runes for their shield, increasing its hardness and hit points, allowing it to block, and take, more damage.
Beyond that, items that provide bonuses to your chosen skills, as we talked about earlier, are always worth investing in, to hit those scaling DCs.
Items that increase your Perception bonus can be invaluable, as Perception is the most commonly rolled stat for Initiative, and is a valuable stat besides, for Seeking foes in stealth.
Perhaps the synthesis of all these ideas is that in Pathfinder Second Edition, working together is the most effective way of succeeding.
Many of the skills we have already talked about apply debuffing conditions to foes, but the people best placed to take advantage of these debuffs are your party, not yourself. The Off-Guard condition, provided by Athletic manoeuvres, flanking, and a number of other effects, benefits allied martials by reducing their AC, increasing their likelihood of hitting or critting. Frightened and Bon Mot decrease the saving throws that make it easier for spellcasters to land their spells.
A lot of the focus has been on debuffing foes, but you know what’s better than just debuffing foes? Buffing your allies AND debuffing your foes. Combining a +1 to hit (from a Bard’s Courageous Anthem or the Bless spell, for example), with the -2 from Off-Guard gives your ally a full +15% chance of hitting or critting a foe, and there are easily more powerful buffs available at higher levels!
In this context, one might regard knowing a target’s weaknesses as a debuff on the foe, so communicating this information to your casters is important to help them use their spells most effectively. We’ve talked about it a little, but every -1 to an opponent, or +1 to your ally is a 5% increase in the chance of success to a given roll, but it is also a 5% increase in the likelihood of critically succeeding. It’s this, more than anything, that makes teamwork imperative. A well-placed critical, from either side, can turn the tide of a battle, so by debuffing the foe, you reduce the chances of your side taking a crit, and increase the chances of them taking a crit.
If you take one thing away from this guide, I would really recommend re-reading and thinking about the teamwork sections. It, more than anything else in this guide, will improve your PF2e experience. Even with optimised characters and powerful items, you’ll struggle to face some of the tougher encounters the system will throw at you. Even more than this, the TTRPG hobby is a group experience, making sure you help out your friends ensures that everyone on your table gets their time to shine, and makes the experience more fun for everyone!
I hope this guide has been insightful and helpful for you, and enables you to get the most out of your first few PF2e games.
Please feel free to share this guide with your group, friends, or whatever, just, you know, give fair credit.
If you have any comments, constructive criticism, or suggestions, drop a comment on this Reddit thread, or DM u/SatakOz there.