I'm sure this will be one of many threads that will spawn about the subject (I expect many people to mention Advanced Weapon proficiency as well), but I honestly just have one request:
Please move away from having Shield Block as the sole General feat oriented towards giving players a defensive reaction.
Pathfinder 2E is extremely elegant and obviously my favorite system. But as it stands:
- - Having Shield Block be the only defensive reaction option among General feats makes every character that wants one orbit towards it, even if it doesn't fit the class fantasy;
- If you play a class that gets it for free, it feels like you are wasting your class' power budget if you don't want to employ it;
- - Shield Block as a General feat is TOO appealing, Reaction is a MASSIVE upgrade in action economy for any character, so you will orbit towards having one if you are able, particularly if you need to stand in melee combat;
- - Other "defensive reactions", like 1H parries, Nimble Dodges, etc. are easy to get with Class Feat investment, so it's not clear why Shield Block has laxer access requirements if it's not that different in terms of power-level;
- - It feels against the design philosophy of PF2E to mandate a specific combat style/equipment loadout... wouldn't it be wonderful if, instead of gaining Shield Block, classes like Champion or Fighter gained a Defensive Reaction of their flavor of choice?
I'm sure Core will come with other ways to make Shield Block more appealing (looking at Sturdy...), so with a power-up, we could also have a wider array of options from the get-go.
Thank you!
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I think the friction between AoOs & Shield Block is intentional (and similarly for Champions), and that it might imbalance things if they had a tuned defensive reaction less costly than Shield Block.
And it is costly, a lot more costly than one feat suggest; taking a hand, an action, and one's reaction (and for some builds, Bulk they can hardly afford). For martials, those costs are obvious, yet casters have a lot of cool items to juggle, as well as so many 3rd actions that'd help more.
So I'm not sure Shield Block's as attractive as you're making it out to be.
That said, I wish there were a generic "full defense" action. It might cost 2 or even 3 actions, perhaps even being an Open action that ends your turn. It's just strange there's no other basic way than Raise Shield to focus on defense when cornered (and even that and similar actions are meant to used as part of one's routine).