D&D 5e is kind of bad system. It's "good" in that it's hard to make a bad character, and it's popular, but that's most of what it has going for it. It's missing a lot of rules you'd want for a general purpose RPG. Centering it on rests only works in rather specific kinds of games. The magic system is very bespoke and thus clunky. The dice math if 1d20+stuff gives you a flat probability, which is often unsatisfying.

Pathfinder 2e is widely considered better than 5e in every way, unless you actually specifically want the simple+shallowness of 5e. Which is a fine thing to want, but that is a pretty big trade off. If you were just playing with friends, you'd probably be better off with Fate or maybe a PbtA game if you want simple narrative stuff, or Gloomhaven if you just want a board game.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I find Pathfinder 2e (and D&D 3e before it) way clunkier. Maintaining a level-appropriate power level requires stacking buffs like the Overlord meme, and if you decline to do so, you're just crippling your character. It's bad enough that auto-buffing mods are considered mandatory for the Pathfinder CRPGs.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 points 5 months ago

I don't like the Christmas tree effect either, where your character is less important than your stack of magic doodads and buffs.

The pathfinder crpgs are 1e. I'm not sure how much changed in 2e, but I'm told it's much better.

Myself, I'm playing Fate now.

[–] StraySojourner@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Pf2e is great, and for those that want something lighter on the crunch there's a bunch of better systems out there.