Pathwarden

Ok, so given this is a beta version, I assume feedback is useful? Sorry for the essay :) I've been taking notes while I made a character to figure out the rules.

Overall, I think the ideas here are great. It pulls a lot of the things I like from Pathfinder 2E and gently ignores a lot of the things I find annoying, so it definitely does what it's intending to do, for me at least.

The layout of the book isn't the clearest, though, and there are some assumptions in the text which aren't explicit or are mentioned only in passing. For example, the number of damage dice isn't explicitly stated anywhere except in a brief example ("For example, a Longsword has a base damage of 1d8, meaning you roll 1d8 as its damage die, 2d8 if you’re an Expert and so forth"). It would be good to put things like that in explicitly, and keep all the rules around (for example) number of damage dice and bonus damage together.

There might also need ot be a careful edit by someone other than the main author, to check for things referenced that shouldn't be there - e.g. general feats. I had to do a search through the PDF to work out that there are no general feats, only feats associated with the various paths and boons. Which makes sense, but that was really not clear since the rules refer to geenral feats on p 12.

It would also be useful to put in examples for a lot of things. I know they're a pain to write, but for some of the rules it would make it a _lot_ clearer. For example, reload weapons gain Discharged 1 after firing; the rules say that "Discharged ticks down at the beginning of Rounds and can be removed with an Interact action to reload the weapon" - but does that mean that Discharged ticks down by itself, and you have the option to use an Interact action instead (earlier, say), or that you must use an Interact action to tick Discharge down at the start of the round?

My only other general comment is that it would be great to have a section on translating or using PF2 content with the Pathwarden rules. I know you've said elsewhere that it isn't intended to be properly compatible, but the DCs are about the same, so in reality a lot of adventures and creatures at least should be usable as-is, and most equipment & magical items shouldn't be too hard to transpose. Spells would be hard, but not impossible, probably, and feats might take a bit of work, but... I don't know, it would be nice to have some advice for GMs who want to try.

Specific questions  that came up for me:

(1) Do you get the Cantrip associated with a spell imbued into a focus item? Or just the main spell?

(2) If I make a melee strike using a focus item which is a weapon, that uses my magic proficiency rather than my combat proficiency. Does that mean the damage is 2dx P1 if I have an expert rank in Magic, even if my Combat rank is only Trained?

(3) How is Spell Difficulty calculated? It's on the character sheet, but there's no reference in the rules - is it meant to be a straight 10 + Magic Proficiency bonus, or does it depend on the spell rank (Trained / Expert / Master) as well?

(4) The rules state that reload weapons gain an additional damage die. Does that mean that (without any other boons or feats affecting number of damage dice) a crossbow should deal 2d8 damage at Trained, 3d8 at Expert, & 4d8 at Master (without affecting Potency, I assume)?

Hey, I'm trying to wrap my head around the Explore action. Is this just the "move to a new room/area, get a basic description" action, where Search is the "examine already-explored areas" action?

During point-to-point travel, how would you handle travel speed, obstacles, etc.? Would this be done in Exploration turns, Horizon turns, or just skipped over to get to the target location?

Other question- is Aid a reaction you can take anytime an ally makes a check, or do you need to take some action to 'ready' it? It seems oddly free to use. 

Hi. Do you plan putting up more communities copies?

Any chance for community copies?

I see the Forceful trait mentioned but, unless my search function is glitching, it's not defined. What exactly is it meant to do? 

I wanted to ask, how does adding extra damage dice (like Hunt Prey or Stealth attack) work with the potency system? Do you add the dice after you chosen 1 or two from the base weapon damage, Or are the hunt prey/stealth attack dice added to the pool along with the weapon dice to keep 1 or 2? And do the stealth attack and Hunt Prey dice have their own potency?

Hay! do you ever plan on making a form  fillable Character Sheet?

This sounds a bit like its taking some of the simpler style Dragonbane has. Is there any chance it includes solo rules like that boxset?

A PF2ed you could use to run all that content by yourself from time to time, and use as a less crunchy enterpoint would be something really spectacular indeed.

Would it be possible to get a community copy? Money is a bit tight at the minute