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!
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.