Pathfinder a Bite at a Time: Sorceror and Wizard

Hopefully by now you've already had a bite or two of U20's take on Pathfinder, but if not let me welcome you to a brief exploration of the Sorceror and the Wizard, and please be encouraged to visit the Library to read the rest.

Let's get down to business.

The Sorceror

I’ve been looking forward to the Pathfinder sorcerer because she sports my favorite new class feature of them all, and it's a doozy. Never one to break with tradition, though, let’s start by talking about what’s familiar, rather than what’s new.

The sorcerer is proficient with simple weapons, no armor, and no shields, and her primary attack and defense is still her deep but very narrow selection of arcane spells. Her skills are earned at the rate of 2+int mod per level, and Charisma still governs her bonus spells and spell DCs. Her hit dice have been upgraded to a d6, and she no longer gains a familiar as an automatic class feature (although one bloodline can grant her a familiar if that’s the path you desire). Lastly, her cantrips are now all cast at-will, so go crazy.I figured you've all seen the PF Sorceror before, so here's Paizo's really great-looking miniature of their archetype sorceror, Seoni.

The bloodline class feature is awesome, and the defining sorceror trait, allowing you to choose from where your sorcerer gets her magical aptitude. From aberrant to infernal to draconic to fey, and several others (10 in total), your bloodline not only manifests in expanded spell lists, but feats and other bloodline powers that allow you to unsheathe burning claws or move with the burrowing speed of your elemental forebears. Your bloodline informs (but doesn’t decide) your character’s alignment, thought process, and even how you might look. The abilities your bloodline grants all follow a similar pattern, but with the exception of a few repeat offenders the majority of them are fresh, useful, and deliciously flavorful across the board. This is my model class feature.

The elven sorceress in my Pathfinder game has used her Fey bloodline’s laughing touch ability to save her life a couple of times in just a handful of sessions. Overall, I love the changes made for the Pathfinder Sorceror, and if I could cast Time Stop I would play a campaign with each of the bloodlines before moving on.

The Wizard

The few wizards I have played over a decade have been from a range of levels from 3.5E and wholly enjoyable without exception. The Pathfinder wizard is still squishy, with an extremely limited weapon selection and no armor or shields. His hit die is a d6 (there are no d4s for core class hit dice in Pathfinder), and he still casts a wide selection of spells that are memorized from his spellbooks. Cantrips are all now at-will, and he still gains a handful of arcana-related bonus feats as he levels (starting with scribe scroll).

Ezren, probably grumpy Pathfinder Wizard. School specialization is nothing new, but it is now more-or-less a requirement of the wizard at 1st level as he chooses his arcane school. The vancian favorites are all still here, and much like the sorceror's bloodline, your chosen school provides you with bonus spells in your specialization, limitations (but not forbiddance) on two other schools of your choice, and related powers ranging from a modular resistance to energy that you can change daily (abjuration), to the ability to send your weapon flying from your hand to make a melee attack up to 30 feet away (the hand of the apprentice power from the universalist school). Cool beans, and another welcome change for a class that has gotten some flack for being too weak at low levels.

Lastly, your Arcane Bond feature allows you to develop a bond with a familiar (working much like it has in the past), or a bonded object. The object—a ring, staff, amulet, wand, or weapon—can be improved like any magical item, and provides an extra free spell to be cast from the wizard's spellbook every day. I prefer familiars, but if you want something that's low-frills but undoubtedly effective, the bonded object is an excellent route to a more powerful wizard.

Conclusions

Overall I'm extremely pleased with the Pathfinder classes, and even my gripes are really merely quibbles in the grand scheme. I am pumped to run players playing these classes, and looking forward to my opportunities to roll up my own bards, druids, fighters, monks, rogues, and sorcerors in the years to come.

What's Next?

Well, there's a lot more Pathfinder to explore, and I would like to discuss the skills and feats chapters over the next days, but I think a comparison of the 20th-level abilities of each of these excellent classes is in order. And, of course, there are prestige classes and Campaign Settings to reveal!

But that's a different story. Thanks for stopping by, and I welcome your comments!

Pathfinder a Bite at a Time: Ranger and Rogue

Bonjour et bienvenue to this examination of Paizo's Pathfinder. Allow me to be your guide to this latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, a bite at a time.

Today we're talking about the Ranger and the Rogue.

The Ranger

Still the masters of the hunt, Pathfinder rangers boast favored enemies (making them positively deadly versus these critters), a choice of combat styles (archery or two-weapon combat), endurance, track, wild empathy, hide in plain sight, camouflage, D10 hit dice, 4+int skill points, and martial weapon proficiencies coupled with light and medium armor, and shields.

Pathfinder rangers are strengthened even further with new and broad favored terrains, chosen every five levels starting with third. When adventuring in his favored terrain he gains climbing bonuses to initiative and a selection of hunt related skills. While I think many and most Pathfinder rangers will choose forest or underground tarrins (depending on campaign), this new ability is welcome as it offers additional power and customization options—your favored enemy and terrain combined are more than enough to build hundreds of cool character concepts. I like it.

Harsk, as harsh as his name, I think.

Here's where things get a bit less rosy in my eyes. Let me know what you think.

The Hunter's Bond ability (earned at 4th level alongside your first ranger spells) takes the place of the previous animal companion. You still have that option, thankfully (have I mentioned before that I love mounts, familiars, companions, and followers? Well, I do), but you can also choose to form a close bond with your hunting companions (the rest of the party).

This allows you to grant, with a move action, half of your favored enemy bonuses to nearby allies for a number of rounds. Blech. Undoubetdly useful and powerful, this ability not only feels very much "just because" to me (like a 4E power), it actually makes the ranger less interesting as a character choice. It's boring and, maybe I'm crazy, but it drags me right out of the mutual storytelling environment I prefer in my games by busting down that fourth wall as it's poorly described. it just is, and that's not enough for me.

The ranger's quarry ability is even worse. Starting at 11th level the ranger can make one target within line of sight his quarry. To him, the quarry is very easy to track and kill. At 19th level the ability improves in every way mechanically. Again, it's a powerful, useful ability that does nothing to keep me interested in the class. Is it magical? Why is it limited to one quarry at a time? Why does the ranger have to wait an hour to choose a new quarry once his is dead? The answer is balance, of course, but that's an unsatisfying reason for anything, and I'm certain I can come up with something just as powerful but more unique and interesting for this class at those levels. Stay tuned and I'll share what I come up with.

But that's enough Ranger, let's get to the rogue.

The Rogue

Pathfinder rogues are as versatile and interesting as ever before. Sneak attacks, tons of skills points, trapfinding, evasion, trap senses, and an array of light armors and weapons great for ending lives in a hurry or with a flourish.

So many blades. I love it.Better, rogues now gain those seldom-seen rogue talents starting as early as second level and continuing every second level thereafter. Joy! The talents themselves have been expanded to include some interesting choices (22 in all), and before I go on I'd like to highlight three of my favorites.

• Bleeding Attack: On a successful sneak attack your victim bleeds for a point of damage per sneak attack die every round thereafter until he's healed or dead (and let's face it, in most fights it's going to be the latter)
• Minor and Major Magic: The first is a gateway talent that allows you to choose a cantrip to cast three times daily. The second allows you to cast a 1st-level spell twice daily. An interesting pair of talents that leads to even greater power over magic (and those who practice it) that truly paints the rogue in the role of an adventurer who lives by her wits.
• Fast Stealth: Use stealth at your full movement rate. Awesome, undeniably useful, and exactly what a rogue with enough training should be able to do.

Unfortunately, my biggest beef with the rogue also lies within her talents. The combat trick and feat talents respectively allow you to choose a feat from the fighter's bonus list or any feat you qualify, cheapening the fighter's primary class feature while adding nothing to the rogue. Again, I'm certain a bit of work would yield 2-4 excellent rogue talents to round out this list without resorting to this rather uninspired choice.

A small complaint for an otherwise excellent class (and naturally there's nothing stopping me from choosing the talents that I prefer). The Pathfinder rogue benefits from greater customization options at lower levels alongside an improved hit die (d8). My mind is awash with the possibilities of rogue characters, and I'm rather pleased with the rogue overall.

800 Words so Far? Far Too Long!

My apologies, but apparently I have more to say when complaining then when praising. Leave a comment if you want to discuss something, don't forget to check out my other bites into Pathfinder, and thanks much for stopping by.

Sorceror (!) and Wizard tomorrow. Good gaming.