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

 

[TwoSix]

Yes, but it doesn't completely negate magic missile like it used to (at least it doesn't say that it does, so we have to assume it doesn't). It interacts with magic missile as a normal Shield Block reaction does, which only negates damage up to the Hardness of the shield used (which is 4 for Ezren).

Yes, I agree it is different than previous versions.

 

[mellored]

The shield spell was the counter for magic missile. It no longer does that. It also use to be +4 AC (and a first level spell). They could have given this cantrip a different name so that there were no unmet expectations of grandeur.

Because it's a cantrip, not a level 1 spell.

And you can still block a magic missile, with a 50% chance of breaking your shield (and a 25% chance of you taking 1 damage).

 

[mellored]

Would like to know how cantrips are going to scale with character level

Have we read anywhere that cantrips scale? They didn't in pf1

Yes, they scale.

"In the playtest, cantrips are spells you can cast at will, but they are no longer level 0. Instead, they automatically heighten to the highest spell level you can currently cast. That means if you're 5th level, your ray of frost is 3rd level and deals more damage, and your light cantrip is better at counteracting magical darkness."

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah there is a lot missing from those sheets, like magic missile heightened for more missiles, so that is a level one only sheet. Don't read too much into what those spells and powers do at higher level.

 

[mellored]

Right above Burning Hands in the detail breakout: "You have prepared the following spells. Each can be cast once."

I'm not fond of that positioning myself.

It's old school preparation for the wizard. You want to cast magic missile twice, you need to prepare it twice. You can also prepare cantrips.
Sorcerer's get the 5e style flexible casting.

And you only get 2 spell slots at level 1. (+1 from your arcane focus)

 

[Hurin70]

Seems like hits for level 1 characters don't really vary that much. The Wizard has 16, the Human Paladin 19, and the Cleric and Fighter 20.

 

[Charlaquin]

How much arcane focus does he have? What does courtly graces do? What about general training?

Arcane Focus says right there in the description, “Frequency once per day.” Courtly Graces and General Training both have asterisks after them, and at the bottom of the first page, it notes “*abilities marked with an asterisk are already reflected in other statistics.” Presumably, those Feats give him some level of Proficiency in something. Keep in mind, this is not the actual character sheet, it’s just the stat sheet used for the handful of preview sessions they’ve done. It only contains the bare minimum information necessary to play this specific prepare character. The actual character sheet has much more specific detail.

It interacts with magic missile as a normal Shield Block reaction does, which only negates damage up to the Hardness of the shield used (which is 4 for Ezren).

A normal shield block reaction doesn’t interact with magic missile at all.

Sorcerer's get the 5e style flexible casting.

More or less, but unlike in 5e they can’t freely heighten spells. If a sorcerer wants to cast magic missile at 2nd level, they need to learn it at second level. They can choose 2 spells per day that they can actually freely Heighten, 5e style that day.

Seems like hits for level 1 characters don't really vary that much. The Wizard has 16, the Human Paladin 19, and the Cleric and Fighter 20.

That gap will widen at higher levels. They’re looking very close right now because Ancestry also adds HP at 1st level, but it doesn’t at higher levels. So right now we’be got:
Human (8) + Wizard (6) + Con (+2) = 16
Human (8) + Paladin (10) + Con (+1) = 19
Human (8) + Cleric (10) + Con (+2) = 20
Human (8) + Fighter (10) + Con (+2) = 20
Elf (6) + Rogue (8) + Con (+2) = 16
Goblin (8) + Alchemist (6) + Con (+1) = 15

So apart from the elf, everyone is getting +8 HP at first level, skewing the totals closer together. At later levels, the class HP will have a bigger impact and make a bigger difference.

 

[mewzard]

Seems like hits for level 1 characters don't really vary that much. The Wizard has 16, the Human Paladin 19, and the Cleric and Fighter 20.

Well, it can vary quite a bit.

For instance, an Elf Wizard with an 8 Con (which is possible due to their racial -2 to Con) can have 11 HP, the lowest I can think of right now. 6 HP from Elf for the first level, 6 from Wizard, -1 from 8 Con.

Now, let's try something different, with a Human Barbarian, and let's give them 16 Con, which is totally doable, regardless of what stat your class gives. Now, Human gives them 8 HP at first level, then Barbarian gives 12 HP, and 16 Con would give a +3 to HP, giving us 23 HP, not even counting taking the Toughness feat at first level, or your Barbarian Rage temp HP.

That's a decent range. If Orc is indeed an ancestry, and if it gives more HP at first level, like, say, 10? That would raise it even higher.

 

[Sunseeker]

Seems like hits for level 1 characters don't really vary that much. The Wizard has 16, the Human Paladin 19, and the Cleric and Fighter 20.

But if you subtract the bonus 10 HP from that number, you have much the same range that you've always had.

6HP for the Wizard, 9 for the Paladin, 10 for the Cleric and 10 for the Fighter.
In PF1 this would boil down to
1d6+0Con Wizard.
1d10-1Con Paladin
1d8+2 Cleric
1d10+0 Fighter

These aren't unreasonable stat combinations to see at any given table in a 3.X-style system.

 

[jmucchiello]

Because it's a cantrip, not a level 1 spell.

I pointed that out. What was your point?

And you can still block a magic missile, with a 50% chance of breaking your shield (and a 25% chance of you taking 1 damage).

No equivalence what so ever.

Want to address my actual point: "why didn't they just give the cantrip a different name to avoid confusion?"