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!

 

[Sunseeker]

I'm not sure what help Reactive Shield would have against crits. Aren't crits auto-hit still regardless of the target AC?

 

[HomegrownHydra]

I'm not sure what help Reactive Shield would have against crits. Aren't crits auto-hit still regardless of the target AC?

Crist are hits by 10 or more. So Reactive Shield can potentially turn a crit into a normal hit.

 

[Sunseeker]

Crist are hits by 10 or more. So Reactive Shield can potentially turn a crit into a normal hit.

Oh okay, didn't know that.

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

Does having his mug "ready" give him a bonus to his "party" initiative. Or Chug: You can raise your mug as a reaction to subtract 4 from your sobriety saving throw.

 

[Blue]

Early in the playtest reveil there was a lot of talk about how it seemed very similar to D&D 5e. Looking at the precise definitions and the keywords we've seen in these character sheets is the opposite direction. Looking for players who want things more codified and precise then "rulings not rules" 5e. Which is great - both are valid approaches with lots of adherents. This is good news for everyone - more choice for us all in finding what works for us and for our table.

 

[Adso]

Odd that Reactive Shield can only work against enemies and not traps, dominated allies, natural hazards, etc.

Lately, I've been doing an overview of triggers in the playtest version of the game, and I have the same note in my spreadsheet. Don't be suprised if this gets changed in the final version.

Stephen
Pathfinder RPG Senior Designer and map guy

 

[Adso]

Early in the playtest reveil there was a lot of talk about how it seemed very similar to D&D 5e. Looking at the precise definitions and the keywords we've seen in these character sheets is the opposite direction. Looking for players who want things more codified and precise then "rulings not rules" 5e. Which is great - both are valid approaches with lots of adherents. This is good news for everyone - more choice for us all in finding what works for us and for our table.

Yeah, I'm always puzzled by folks who tell me "it looks like 5e." I like 5e. Some of my best friends made 5e. P2 is not 5e. It's a very different approach to some of the same issues.

 

[mellored]

Have shields been nerfed a ton since the Glass Cannon podcast? They had a fighter with a Hardness 9 wooden shield, and Valeros has a "Heavy steel shield" that has only Hardness 5?

by my reading, it blocks up to 5 damage at once.
And a total of 10 damage.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, I'm always puzzled by folks who tell me "it looks like 5e." I like 5e. Some of my best friends made 5e. P2 is not 5e. It's a very different approach to some of the same issues.

Seems to me that the only similarity to 5e is that they both use a d20 and are fantasy RPGs in the D&D tradition. (Okay, maybe a little more than that, but not much).

 

[Deverash]

Yeah, up to 5 damage at once...but it can block 4 damage forever. Which is interesting to me. Do I take the damage, or take a dent? Knowing if i take a Dent now, I may have to choose between destroying my shield, or dropping to 0 later.