Pathfinder 2 Character Sheet #3: Valeros, Human Fighter

It's another day, and you know what that means? It's time for the third of our six reveals of the Pathfinder 2nd Edition pregenerated playtest characters, courtesy the awesome folks over at Paizo. Today it's the turn of Valeros, the human fighter. A little more straightforward than the previous alchemist and cleric sheets, in this one you can see the shield mechanics which have been mentioned a few times over the past months.

Here are Paizo's Mark Seifter's thoughts on Valeros -- "So right away from his sketch, you can see something’s different: Valeros has sheathed his shortsword for now and is using his longsword alongside a shield. Of these iconics, Valeros is the king of reactions, the special action you can take when it is not your turn, usually in response to other actions. He has three different possible reactions, Attack of Opportunity to punish enemies when he’s in their face, Reactive Shield to Raise a Shield for AC when he didn’t have enough actions to do so, and Shield Block to prevent damage when he did have enough actions to Raise his Shield. Combine that with the powerful two-action activity Sudden Charge, which allows him to Stride twice his Speed and then attack, and Valeros is a force to be reckoned with on any battlefield, striking down weaker enemies, harrying stronger enemies, and difficult to fell."

On Monday, it'll be time to take a look at Seelah, the human paladin!

 

[Adso]

I'm thrown by the term "Open", having played several games where the term is used to mean "open as in open-ended, with fewer timing restrictions than normal" rather than "open as in opening move, with more timing restrictions than normal". I'd pick another word with less potentially confusing ambiguity. Netrunner used "Priority" for the same effect. At the very least, "Opener" would be clearer on which meaning is intended.

We threw around a lot of terms. In the end, we went with open as in the opening of your attack and its sister term, press, which must be used after you have already used an attack action that turn (including an open). So far we haven't seen any confusion with this terminology, but of course, we will keep looking at it as the playtest progresses.

 

[Aldarc]

These character sheets are neat and all, but when will we get to see how PF2 deals with the bard?

 

[Charlaquin]

These character sheets are neat and all, but when will we get to see how PF2 deals with the bard?

Probably soon. There are, what, 5 previews left before the playtest rules are released? And we’ve now had a preview blog for every class save the bard and the Druid. And we kind of saw the Druid at the banquet livestream. So the Bard has to be coming soon. I assume they must be holding it back because it’s got some big changes. Maybe it’s a non-caster? Or has some off-the-wall new nonvancian way of casting spells. Ooh, maybe it’s Psionic! That’d be weird. Or maybe they’re going really old-school and making Bard a Prestige Class.

 

[TwoSix]

Probably soon. There are, what, 5 previews left before the playtest rules are released? And we’ve now had a preview blog for every class save the bard and the Druid. And we kind of saw the Druid at the banquet livestream. So the Bard has to be coming soon. I assume they must be holding it back because it’s got some big changes. Maybe it’s a non-caster? Or has some off-the-wall new nonvancian way of casting spells. Ooh, maybe it’s Psionic! That’d be weird. Or maybe they’re going really old-school and making Bard a Prestige Class.

Well, we know that Occult is one of the 4 spell lists. We don't have any caster that's primarily Occult yet (I'm assuming that Wizard is Arcane, Cleric is Divine, Druid is Primal, and Sorcerer is catch-all depending on bloodline.) Bard is really the only class left, so I would believe that Bard is primarily Occult, unless Occult is specifically being used as add-on for certain class archetypes.

 

[Charlaquin]

Well, we know that Occult is one of the 4 spell lists. We don't have any caster that's primarily Occult yet (I'm assuming that Wizard is Arcane, Cleric is Divine, Druid is Primal, and Sorcerer is catch-all depending on bloodline.) Bard is really the only class left, so I would believe that Bard is primarily Occult, unless Occult is specifically being used as add-on for certain class archetypes.

It could also be in there just for future-proofing, since I'm sure they'll eventually add more spell casting classes to the game. But yeah, you are probably right that the bard will use the Occult spell list.

 

[Henry]

More odd than a skeleton (which has resistance 5 to piercing and slashing)?

1-5 = completely resisted, no HP loss.
6+ = resisted 5 damage and lose the remainder in HP.

I mean... this is pretty much the same way object damage worked in PF1, it’s just that dents are a bit more abstract than structure.

No, I think I see what [MENTION=6801209]mellored[/MENTION] is saying - why would it not block 5 damage and take no dents if it’s hardness is 5? If it’s hardness is 4, I could understand it, but a hardness 5 thing takes no damage if it takes 5 damage...

 

[Charlaquin]

No, I think I see what [MENTION=6801209]mellored[/MENTION] is saying - why would it not block 5 damage and take no dents if it’s hardness is 5?

Because that's what the rule says?

If it’s hardness is 4, I could understand it, but a hardness 5 thing takes no damage if it takes 5 damage...

Good news, I have a solution for you. Take a pen. Cross out the number 5 on the sheet. Write a small number 6 above it.

 

[Aldarc]

Probably soon. There are, what, 5 previews left before the playtest rules are released? And we’ve now had a preview blog for every class save the bard and the Druid. And we kind of saw the Druid at the banquet livestream. So the Bard has to be coming soon. I assume they must be holding it back because it’s got some big changes. Maybe it’s a non-caster? Or has some off-the-wall new nonvancian way of casting spells. Ooh, maybe it’s Psionic! That’d be weird. Or maybe they’re going really old-school and making Bard a Prestige Class.

I hope so. The bard, for me at least, says a lot about an edition, as it seems that every single version of the bard varies between edition to edition: e.g., fighter/thief/druid, rogue/wizard, 6th level arcane caster, arcane leader, 9th level spell caster, etc. So I am curious how Paizo will choose to express the bard in Pathfinder 2. The bard felt like a persistent red-headed stepchild of 3rd Edition.

 

[TwoSix]

It could also be in there just for future-proofing, since I'm sure they'll eventually add more spell casting classes to the game. But yeah, you are probably right that the bard will use the Occult spell list.

You're not wrong, but it does seem odd to future-proof playtest material. If it isn't used anywhere except the one bloodline of sorcerer, easy enough to leave out of the playtest. So I have to assume it has other utility that we haven't seen yet.

 

[Charlaquin]

These character sheets are neat and all, but when will we get to see how PF2 deals with the bard?

Ask and you shall receive.