Pathfinder (2e): 9 Items to Consider When Designing Encounters

Very timely for me. Thanks.

Any references (other than the podcast), that you use for encounter, adventure, and/or campaign design?

That shark-octopus encounter looks amazing. Where can I find that image?

Great shoutout to the Order 66 podcast, those guys are fantastic!

This is perfect! One of the things I've always struggled with as a GM is ilcombat, and of course combat is what my players are most interested in. I'm really good at role playing and world building, which my players suck at, because of course that's how my luck works.

Great tips! Thank You!

Thank you very much for this tips. I especially like the Rule of 6 and your suggestions about phases.

Great videos for starters and it gave me some thoughts! while watching.
While not a specific part of encounter building but keeping in mind the intent of your encounter. Since that will help with the direction of the encounters you make. Sometimes an encounter doesn't need to be a struggle, if the players are meant to find these weak baby monsters to lull them into a false sense of security or suspicion as the true terror lies further ahead. Sometimes you also want to tactically neglect these rules to invoke feelings in your players, like intentionally clustering enemies to invite a fireball being spent on them. Maybe starting with flat terrain because the enemies are going to explicitly disrupt it. Of course those are more contextual but always fun food for thought.

Annother wonderful video. Not just how to determine the monters numbers in a PF2 encounter, but things every GM should remember about encounter builing. I have been GMing for decades and often forget some of these things. Nice to see how another GM goes about it.

I am totally stealing that (Rule of 6), it's so simple and effective. I'd love to see you design an OTT encounter putting all these rules to use.

Excellent advice!

This was a great video, and very helpful. This is something that I'm definitely going to look into more when I'm prepping for my games. :)

Thanks for the shoutout, man! Glad you found "The List" useful. And "Phases" is 100% correct and brilliant - a more than worthy inclusion to The List. ;)

You've had some videos that were real gems, or this one will be super useful. I'm going to go change up my next encounter.

Another tip (which kinda counts to the hazard category) is to have a third party.
For example when fighting goblins in the wild and having a (weak) giant eagle fly above them, picking at one of the creatures or PCs randomly,
or when fighting people in a city alley, having guards come in who try to capture/arrest both bandits and the party

Really cool list that you shared! I will make sure to remember the skill section for the next dungeon.

Hello, algorithm

Another great video! I will surely re-watch it 10 or more times haha.
I try and get many of these elements in my campaign but for lighting, one of my players has an ever burning mace that emits light 30 feet and low light to 60 I believe. Is there anything I can do to include darkness or lowlight that would still not rob them of that items ability?

This video was full of extremely useful advice. Thanks!

Thanks for the great advice!
For a long while, I've been feeling unsatisfied with encounters I've run.
You've just reinforced a few things I've been thinking of trying, and pointed me in few other directions too.
I'd love to see you make an example of the process video when the series is complete.

Great video, can't wait for the other parts!

Commenting solely to boost this sick ass channel

very cool. I love that pathfinder 2e already lends itself to using movement in combat already this helps map for it

Yeah! Phases are the way to go. When your players start thinking that this was too easy, BAM, the beaten up vampire transforms into a massive monstruos bat like creature, or mommy Yetti comes home running to see who's messing up with her babys

Algorithmn feeding time.

A very useful and insightful video. I will definitely be keeping "The List" in mind when I start building my next campaign. When watching this video, a thought that came to me was to avoid placing bottlenecks at entrances to the room. Yes, guards at the door might make sense, but you don't want the entire party stacked up on the door because of one nameless goon.

Brilliant and thank you very much.

Phasing is super useful, it helps with encounter balance and dm rolling time per round.

Having the number of enemies hidden makes it so that you can very easily ramp it up or down by changing how any and how fast you add enemies. Let's not forget action economy.

Brilliantly presented. Your videos are always a pleasure to watch. Definitely using these to improve my games. Thank you.

Thanks a lot!! These are so useful!!

Awesome summary of super vital encounter design!

Your Pathfinder 2E videos are so incredibly helpful and well-presented. Thank you so much for these!

When using the "Rule of 6" you should keep in mind that you're essentially countering AOE based spell. If you over-use this strategy your spellcasters will have a hard time feeling like they are effective. Sometimes it's okay to let the caster "end a fight early.. by nuking everything with aoe at the beginning".

Amazing video for dms

Dude, I loved order 66 back in the day! Haven’t listened in a while, but they give you some great advice! Way to keep the tradition alive

@dave was part 2 and part 3 produced? I could not find them