Designing Different Fighters for Pathfinder 2e (Patreon)

Classes in Pathfinder 2nd ed are spectacularly flexible as a result of how they are designed. The majority of a class's abilities come in the form of feats, allowing you to select those abilities that match your vision of a character. And if your vision requires something other than your class's abilities, archetypes allow you to expand your options for those feat choices.

But there are a few core abilities that every member of a class get (above and beyond things like proficiency ranks, which do play a huge role but are a different kind of ability than what we're discussing today). In the case of the fighter, the core abilities that ever member of the class gains early on are attack of opportunity, and shield block. Those are great, useful, and evocative of the combat-expert role the righter plays, but don't fit every character concept.

In particular, shield block is a hugely beneficial ability, but only does you any good if your fighter uses a shield. It serves no purpose for characters focusing on fighting with ranged weapons, two-weapon fighting, one-handed weapon and free hand, or two-handed weapons. However, if we swapped out that single ability for something that did apply to those other fighting options, the entire feel of the fighter class can change.

So, here are alternate options for a Pathfinder 2nd edition fighter to take in place of shield block, to make four more kinds of fighter.

(Art by murat)

Free Hand Fighting(Alternate fighter feature, replaces shield block)

When you have a 1-handed weapon in one hand and your other hand is completely free, and you take a manipulate action that takes at least one single action and only requires one hand, you can also Strike with the weapon in your other hand.

Snap Volley(Alternate fighter feature, replaces shield block)

You can use a single action to take the Ready action. When you do so, the only action you can ready is to make a ranged Strike with a ranged weapon for which your proficiency rank is Trained or better.

Twin Parry(Alternate fighter feature, replaces shield block)

You gain the twin parry fighter feat.

Unbalancing Smash(Alternate fighter feature, replaces shield block)

You gain the Unbalancing Smash action.

Unbalancing Smash [Two Actions]Make a melee Strike with a two-handed weapon. If you hit and damage the target, it takes a -1 penalty to attack rolls until the start of your next turn.

SupportThere are two massive multipublisher bundles of products on DriveThruRPG right now that are fundraisers for my growing medical debt. Each has more than $700 of pdfs, from 16+ different companies, for a dozen different ttRPGs (including some core rulebooks!), as well as maps, figures, stock art, and so on. They're just $34.95 apiece, and will only be available through May 15th.

Bundle #1: http://bit.ly/3KNMw8fBundle #2: http://bit.ly/3Uu6JTV

Alternatively you can increase your pledge level to my Patreon, or if you prefer donate directly through my Ko-Fi account - https://ko-fi.com/owenkcstephens