Pathfinder 2 Character Sheet #6: Ezren, Human Wizard

It's a sad day, because today is the last of our six previews of the Pathfinder 2nd Edition iconic pregenerated characters. But the full playtest is out very soon! Anyhow, today we have Ezren, the human wizard. Amusing factoid -- although Ezren looks old he's only 42, which makes him younger than may people who have played him.

Paizo's Mark Seifter says "Ezren’s magic missile is just as flexible as Kyra’s heal, whether you want an all-out-salvo of three missiles or a single missile as a follow-up to another spell. Combined with Drain Arcane Focus to restore the spell, Ezren was consistently the MVP against the boss in most demos we ran, putting out roughly 21 damage automatically over the course of two rounds. His Widen Spell feat is jaw-droppingly effective on spells like fireball, and while it’s much harder to use it to its full potential with burning hands, it does add more than 50% more area, so the few times I saw an Ezren use that combination, he devastated the field."

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And that's it for the previews! If you missed any, here are the other five:

• Fumbus, goblin alchemist
• Kyra, human cleric
• Valeros, human fighter
• Seelah, human paladin
• Merisiel, elf rogue

 

[Kaodi]

Looks pretty good. I will be interested to see how Shield works out as a cantrip.

 

[jmucchiello]

Looks pretty good. I will be interested to see how Shield works out as a cantrip.

Not being able to cast it again for 10 minutes makes it much less useful. I never saw "shield" as a literal analog to having a shield. It use to be described as force floating near the wizard like a wall. It was also the spell that countered the automatic hit from magic missile. Now magic missiles can destroy wizards. That's also different.

 

[Azgulor]

I see PF2's active shield cantrip as being more along the lines of the mystic shield's Dr. Strange employs rather than the "deflector shield" version of prior editions. The new version is much cooler and more thematic, IMO. A scaling mechanic, feat, or some other new design space may improve upon the 10 min recast time.

 

[Xalorend]

Not being able to cast it again for 10 minutes makes it much less useful. I never saw "shield" as a literal analog to having a shield. It use to be described as force floating near the wizard like a wall. It was also the spell that countered the automatic hit from magic missile. Now magic missiles can destroy wizards. That's also different.

Well, you also have to consider that medium HP is much higher (at least at lvl 1) from PF 1E. While two magic missiles could easily knock out a Wizard/Sorcerer, not it takes a bit more, so you don't need to be paranoid about that for the first lvl.

 

[jmucchiello]

Where does it say how many times you can cast a spell (per day?)? It lists two spells as "first level" but it does not say how frequently they can cast these spells.

 

[shadowva]

Would like to know how cantrips are going to scale with character level, disappointing that Acid Splash only does 1d4 acid damage.
Also doe not show the number of spell slots he has available, but I assume 2, with the two first level spells filling them, since it has a little text about casting each only once.
I'm hoping that have a better character sheet in the playtest for players to use.

 

[steeldragons]

Looks pretty good. I will be interested to see how Shield works out as a cantrip.

This was my first thought. Might work out...but, realistically/in play, how often are you taking 4 or less HP of physical damage?

Seems like a "Shield Block" is going to be a limited DR/absorbed hp, but will "shatter" every time.

 

[Charles Pickering]

Due to his focus power he can cast 3 first level spells per day. So he can either cast burning hands twice or magic missiles twice. As for the shield cantrip you have to remember that crit hits happen if you beat the number you need to hit by 10 OR a natural 20. So every +1 to your AC has a much bigger impact than it does in PF1. Then it has the option of if you are low on HP and are about to get smashed burn the shield to blunt the attack. You can do this basically once every fight which is pretty sweet.

 

[JMCampbell82]

Where does it say how many times you can cast a spell (per day?)? It lists two spells as "first level" but it does not say how frequently they can cast these spells.

"You have prepared the following spells. Each can be cast once."