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!

 

[Shasarak]

It’s almost like your use of hyperbole is so extreme it doesn’t actually illustrate your point. What was your point again?

I dont mind you disagreeing and on the other hand it would be helpful if you could at least remember what you were disagreeing with.

 

[Charlaquin]

I dont mind you disagreeing and on the other hand it would be helpful if you could at least remember what you were disagreeing with.

I could, if you were presenting any kind of consistent point. You’ve been all over the place.

 

[Shasarak]

I could, if you were presenting any kind of consistent point. You’ve been all over the place.

I dont know what is so inconsistent about wanting to use Natural language instead of Jargon.

 

[Charlaquin]

I dont know what is so inconsistent about wanting to use Natural language instead of Jargon.

Your posts, much like natural language, did not clearly communicate your intent.

 

[Sunseeker]

Your posts, much like natural language, did not clearly communicate your intent.

OOOOO SNAP!

Seriously though. We've all had the discussions over in the 5E forum about difficulty and confusion arising from the "natural language".

The problem with "natural language" is that it can come across differently because of both internal (what's in the game book) context and external (the people reading/talking about it) contexts. It especially becomes difficult when you start using the same word in different contexts within the game, such as an Attack (an action wherein you may make multiple attacks) and an attack (where you roll a d20 to hit) while you're making an attack (a contextual description that you're engaging in combat with someone). Which can lead to such wonderful statements of "I make my attack with my Attack while I attack the orc."

Again this is why I keep going back to MTG for reference. "Jargon" can seem jarring at first and its easy to say "Why can't we just do things the way we've been doing them?" or "Why can't we just use "natural" language?" but the reality that even long-term MTG grogs came to realize, is that the jargon was exceptionally helpful in clarifying what was going on and where it was happening. "I Cast Cardname into the Battlefield from my Hand." When before we always used "I play Cardname." and the rest was assumed. The latter is natural, but unclear. Casting is a specific action. The Battlefield is a specific location. The Hand is a specific location. These are referenced in the jargon because it is important for the game to know what Point A and Point B are and how Cardname got from A to B.

The same is true in PF2 (and all games really). It's important from a mechanical viewpoint to know how you got from A to B and what A and B are.

You don't have to actually use the jargon. Many MTG players still don't, but mostly because they're playing with other people who understand the natural language of "I play Cardname."

You can always walk up to the door instead of Stride and turn the knob instead of Interact with an Object and attack your enemy instead of Strike them, as long as the people you're playing with understand how you're using the language. But from the perspective of the game it is important to know that mechanically you used a Stride to get to the door and an Object Interaction to open the door and then a Strike on the Crazy Cat Lady.


Yes yes I know I know I got TCG all up in your RPG. Booo hiiisss.