Pathfinder 2 Character Sheet #4: Seelah, Human Paladin

It's time for the 4th of our six reveals of the Pathfinder 2nd Edition pregenerated playtest characters. Today, we'll be looking at Seelah, the human paladin. This sheet covers some of the shield mechanics we saw in Valeros' sheet, along with various paladin powers such as Lay on Hands, Hospice Knight, Warded Touch, and Retributive Strike.

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"Seelah has a few things on her sheet that might surprise you, depending on how well you know her backstory. She grew up as a pickpocket before she stole from the paladin of Iomedae who changed her life, and so she actually has Thievery, the Pickpocket feat, and Underworld Lore (I like to think that when she uses it to Practice a Trade, she’s working as a white hat consultant who helps businesses defend against criminal activity). Beyond that, her Retributive Strike punishes enemies for attacking anyone but her, and her lay on hands not only heals a target (avoiding Attacks of Opportunity and the like and usable with her shield thanks to her Warded Touch feat), but when she uses it nonselfishly to protect her allies, it also provides a boost to AC to help prevent the ally from just taking the damage again in the next round."

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Keep an eye out for tomorrow's character, Merisiel, the elf rogue!

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[Charlaquin]

Retributive strike seems like it would be awful in play. (As in slowing things down/breaking the flow of combat.) These kinds of fliddly, game-interrupting things are a HUGE turn-off for me. At this point I may have to stop looking at the playtest stuff because it reminds me of the type of things that made me skip 4E completely.

Keep in mind that unlike in 4e, you can only take one reaction per round.

 

[Raith5]

Not sure I want to track damage to shields (dents) in detail. That seems *more* fiddly than even Pathfinder 1. Isn't this supposed to be an easier, faster, and streamlined version of the game? If so, I'm not seeing it.

Agree. I like what I see but there just seems to be a unnecessary layer of mechanics like dents, spell points, touch AC which look like they would overly complicate things.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Keep in mind that unlike in 4e, you can only take one reaction per round.

You could only take one Reaction per round in 4e.

In 3.x/PF and 4e you could have multiple AoOs, but only one Immediate action between turns. 5e consolidated them into a single 'Reaction.' I hadn't notice that PF 2 had gone the 5e route with that, too...

 

[Ebon Shar]

Interesting how Lay on Hands has multiple feats to adjust it - if that's true everywhere that gives a nice level of customization that characters can be very different even if the same class.

I'm all for off-table customization options - give a lot of choices to the players outside of a session when creating and advancing a character. And looking at how they are built, they get factored right in so it doesn't increase at-table complexity at all.

Until the optimizers get to it and then there will be one "right" way to build a Paladin.

 

[Sunseeker]

Me too, and just in general I love that weapon properties make weapon choice about more than just damage die size. I hate that in 5e there is no good reason for a character with martial weapon proficiency to use a shortbow over a longbow, a light crossbow over a heavy crossbow, a sickle over a scimitar, etc. With weapon properties, you might actually consider less damaging weapons for more than just budget reasons.

I think 5E really would have been better served to just so a "simple light 1d4, medium 1d6, heavy 1d8" and a "martial light 1d6, medium 1d8, heavy 1d10" rather than stick to specific weapons. Which is why we have the "Rapier Problem". Let a player flavor their weapon however they want, the point is keeping it simple.

I'm not sure I entirely like Pathfinder's new approach to weapons, but they're clearly going for a "more fiddly bits" angle and it's fitting.

 

[Kite474]

So far Im liking everything except the shield stuff. I think its an awesome idea that makes the shield actually mean something instead of a really crummy AC bonus. At the same time it needs a good bit of work, for now its a bit too fiddly even for Pathfinder

 

[Jester David]

Keep in mind that unlike in 4e, you can only take one reaction per round.

While you could take multiple opportunity actions in a round (one per turn), you could only take one immediate action (aka reaction) per round. Which is what used to slow down and derail combat in 4e, with lots of stopping each turn and people regularly acting multiple times per round.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Funny. I actually love the shield mechanics. We did something similar in 2E. We have a fragile property in 5E for our weapons too.
Those that don't like it = easy. Don't. It is an optional reaction that you never need take.

(Anyone interested in our expanded WEapon Qualities for 5E might want to check: http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/all-weapon-properties).

 

[Charlaquin]

While you could take multiple opportunity actions in a round (one per turn), you could only take one immediate action (aka reaction) per round. Which is what used to slow down and derail combat in 4e, with lots of stopping each turn and people regularly acting multiple times per round.

Oh, you're right, I misremembered.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I really don't like what it says about PF2's approach to skills that you need a feat to pick pockets.