The Words on the Page Aren't Real, They Can't Hurt You

Wait I thought this was an OSR/NSR blog?

I have a…complicated relationship with Pathfinder 2nd Edition (hereafter referred to as PF2E because I am lazy). I have played and run a fair amount of Paizo’s beloved fantasy RPG, including playing in one campaign all the way to level 20 and running a campaign all the way to level 11. I am currently running the Outlaws of Alkenstar Adventure Path for my group, and for reasons that are not on topic for this blog post, this will likely be the last game of PF2E I run for a while, maybe ever.

That said, despite my current preference for OSR/NSR game design, I think overall PF2E is an excellent game in the modern fantasy roleplaying space. It offers some very fun character building and tactical options during combat but still exists within a very familiar D20 fantasy framework. Paizo also pumps out an absurd amount of content for the game, from new character options to lore books to whole new campaigns; the chances that you don’t find a campaign or character option for you are very slim.

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In fact the worst part of Pathfinder is undoubtedly the community that actually engages with and plays the game, particularly the community on the official subreddit, r/Pathfinder2E. In my view you will find one of the worst and most toxic communities in the entire Tabletop RPG sphere here, and given my love of retroclones, I do not say that lightly.

How Could They Be So Toxic?

I’m glad you asked that fictional reader! There are broadly 3 categories that the discourse on the subreddit falls into.

1. Any suggestion or attempt at a house rule is met with downvotes and vitriol, usually the accusation of “playing the game wrong” (or as was the case with the recent Samurai/Ninja drama, being told you are a racist).
2. Any complaint around balance, particularly around spellcaster balance, is met with cries to go back to 5th Edition D&D or being told that they are simply “playing the game wrong” (are you noticing a pattern yet?)
3. Meta commentary on the state of Paizo, various Pathfinder focused content creators, or why more 5th Edition players haven’t switched over yet (I’ll give you a hint it’s because this community is toxic). These usually devolve into wars and locked threads as people jump to one side or the other of the issue and fling insults at each other

These types of discussion easily take up over 50% of the subreddit at any given time, and produce a sort of “poisoning the well” effect where the community just appears hostile to a newcomer. The PF2E community seems very focused around build optimization and playing the game RAW (Rules as Written). And while that is not, inherently, a bad or invalid way to approach a tabletop RPG, pretending it is the only way to play is invalidating to other people who may not share that view or have different goals for their table.

So What Was the Recent Drama?

The most recent example of this came alongside some newly published errata from Paizo concerning a spell called Sure Strike. Previously this spell was called True Strike before Paizo undertook a lengthy process to “remaster” the game and scrub any trace of OGL D&D-isms from the game. It was considered a pretty powerful spell, allowing the caster to spend one action casting it to get advantage on their next attack roll, alongside ignoring concealment and other similar debuffs. The combination of it only requiring one action in PF2E’s three action economy, alongside it being a level one spell, meant a lot of the optimization side of the community thought it was pretty essential on any caster that might also be in melee.

The new errata took aim at this and decided to remove the capacity to spam this spell in combat.

Page 361: The sure strike spell was atypically strong for its level and too easy to cast repeatedly for a significant benefit at all levels of play, leading to repetitive play and squeezing out other options. We’ve added a temporary immunity clause similar to the guidance spell to make it perform more in line with a spell of its rank.

Change the text of the sure strike spell to the following:
The next time you make an attack roll before the end of your turn, roll it twice and use the better result. The attack ignores circumstance penalties to the attack roll and any flat check required due to the target being concealed or hidden. You are then temporarily immune to sure strike for 10 minutes.

This ten minute immunity essentially means you can only cast sure strike once per combat encounter. And very quickly the community discourse became toxic, with the subreddit up in arms about this nerf to what they considered a “vital” part of many builds. One poster put it best.

So What’s The Big Deal Exactly?

First, let’s be fair where fairness is due. I do personally believe that discussing the quality and content of the rules as they are presented in a given book is actually really important. While it’s true that we can just change anything we want, I don’t particularly appreciate spending money on a big expensive coffee table book if it means I’m going to have to rip out and replace half of it anyway. We can, and should, expect better from our RPG products and not go with the expectation that GMs and players alike have to cosplay as game designers as well.

That said, unless your regular interaction with PF2E is via Paizo’s Pathfinder Society Organized Play system, there is literally nobody who is out there forcing you to play the game RAW. Paizo is not sending the pinkertons to kick down your door because you prefer the old Sure Strike! They are literally just words on a page (or in this case, words on a FAQ page on the Paizo website). You can and should feel encouraged to change, add, or remove rules based on what you and your table prefer. If I wanted a static experience with rigidly enforced rules, I would play a video game instead.

What certainly isn’t okay, regardless of your feelings on a rule change, is to go online and be a toxic shithead about it because your favorite build got nerfed. There are easily more productive ways to voice your frustrations, or better yet spend that energy tailoring your game experience to what your table wants.

So with all that said, play games, have fun at your table, change whatever you want, and stop being mad on Reddit. The words on the page truly are not real and they have no power over you.

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