#converting dnd5e to pf2e

[honourablejester]

So. Out of curiosity, given recent events, I was looking at Pathfinder 2e, just to see what it felt like. And, being me, I decided to do this by seeing how easy/difficult it would be to port my homebrew deities over to it. And the results were … interesting.

In that it is not necessarily easy to port deities over, but for a rather cool reason and in a cool way. Apparently, if I am understanding things correctly, your deity is functionally your subclass as a cleric in PF2e? As in, you get a couple of spells from your domain, sure, but you get more spells, an ability increase, a skill, a weapon, and your Divine Font all from your deity. You also need to match your deity to your alignment, and your deity gives you edicts to try and follow and anathemas to avoid if you don’t want to face consequences. Your deity is, essentially, your subclass.

(I’m not ignoring doctrines, I’m just mentally thinking of them more like warlock pact boons? Actually, PF2e clerics are reminding me of 5e warlocks in a couple of ways, really)

It's actually … Honestly, I find that really cool? From a worldbuilding perspective. Now, I can see from a player POV how it might feel quite restrictive, particularly the alignment, edicts and anathemas, but from a story-expressed-in-mechanics POV … It always slightly bugs me in DnD5e that clerics of completely different gods who happen to share a domain will be mechanically identical. You can have, for a random example, a Trickery cleric of Asmodeus and a trickery cleric of Garl Glittergold, and they’ll play the exact same way (mechanically, not counting RP). Your deity, to an extent, is kind of a cosmetic choice beyond domain. But in Pathfinder, your deity is distinctly more crunchy and involved, and I do kinda love it.

It does make porting homebrew deities from DnD5e to PF2e a bit more involved. I am going to work on it, just to see what it’s like, but already I’m having to think about a lot more than the alignment and domains of 5e. Though that is … in one sense it’s fun as a worldbuilder, because a lot more of the deity’s ideals and values and pet peeves are represented mechanically. It’s cool. Working out their domains, their edicts, their anathemas, their boons, their abilities/skill, their spells …

As an extension of this, can I say, there’s some really gnarly spells in PF2e. I’ve no idea if they’re good or not, but for ideas alone there’s some spectacular stuff. For Nalashtar, the plague goddess, for example, I was browsing both Blister and Grisly Growths as potential options (I think Grisly Growths might be the one). Absolutely disgusting, but thematically amazing.

The only downside is, again if I’m reading this correctly, the spells given to deities need to not be on the divine spell list, because deity spells don’t work like DnD5e domain spells, where clerics get them as extra prepared spells a day, and instead are more like warlock patron spells, where they’re options that the cleric can prepare, but they don’t get them always prepared for free. So if a deity’s spell is on the divine spell list, it functionally gives the cleric absolutely nothing extra, since they already had that spell as an option to prepare.

This is a bummer, just from a thematic standpoint, because I read the spell Quick Sort and instantly wanted to give it to Alatee. Is it useful? Not a clue. But it’s bang on for theme. And, yes, she has it anyway, in the general sense that her clerics can use it, but it would have been so good to have it front and centre in her bio to remind people. Oh well. If I make a cleric of Alatee, I’ll know it’s there.

This is definitely turning out to be an interesting exercise, whatever else. Heh.

(Sidenote: I’m getting my PF2e info from the Archives of Nethys site)

[nosnexus]

Does your Pathfinder campaign take place in Golarion? Or some other setting? I've been wanting to get into Pf2e for a while now, it looks so interesting!

We're in Golarion! Specifically, we're in the Starstone Isles right now since we're following the Extinction Curse adventure path.

Honestly, Pathfinder has SO many really great adventure paths to choose from and the setting has a lot of interesting areas to explore that you can really find a setting for any campaign you want to run/play in. And the SYSTEM! Oh, the system is bomb.

Not gonna lie, I was a little overwhelmed with playing Pathfinder for the first time because character creation is extensive (and pretty crunchy compared to DND5e in my experience), but the system is really awesome and worth the initial headache to start. I also had the benefit of a really solid DM and nice party members that were v patient with me 💕

ALSO Pathfinder is also always coming out with new paths and classes and lore that are just chef's kiss! They converted me from 5e to be honest.