Druid Class Fantasy: What Happened?

"A female He-Man? This is the worst day of my life!"



We'll get around to why my quote today was from Skeletor, I promise. If we're talking purely about community perception, Druid is likely the butt of a lot of jokes. I doubt they(or any other class) will ever topple Bard as the "lamest" class, but that's because Bard has a long history of people thinking it's foolish or silly to gameify the merits of music in a small group. Not to go off on a tangent, but I feel like if bardic music didn't exist and they were simply tricky masters of skill who had a few spells, I doubt we'd be getting joke characters like Elan through most of the beginning of Order of the Stick.

Druids were obviously inspired by real life, but unlike the other classes, they have a stronger identity and history. Rogues and Fighters are obviously archetypes, but Druids were a specific people with a clear place in history. However, at some point down the line they...got really lame. Druid or other "Nature Guy" concepts in media are sometimes Aragorn, but more often than not they're Perfuma. I fucking love this character, but look at her over there. Admit it: You've seen this woman at Coachella. Flowers in her hair, constantly talking about energy or other spiritual concepts like a weird hippy...She's even barefoot. The idea of this woman leading her people in a ritualistic human sacrifice is laughable.

She could kill you, though, I want to be clear. She summons massive choking vines as her go-to attack and can crush a tank with little effort. So why(other than this being a children's show, of course) are characters like her so often like this, and why is the class fantasy of Druids often a mirror of this character type? Why don't druids ever seem to get anything really cool in modern source books? The reasons why and how to avoid it(if you want to) are what I'm talking about today.


Druids were an integral part of Celtic society, and we have writings about them from as early as 50 BCE. They were religious leaders, but also legal authorities, medical professionals, and political advisors. They were very strongly revered, and had a reputation as being powerful diviners. To hear the Romans tell it, they also engaged in ritualistic human sacrifice. That's sort of the problem with Druidic knowledge or lore: A lot of what we have was written by the Roman Empire, or later by Christian philosophers. You can imagine there's some possibility of both groups using the label to "Other" the Celts and declare them savage, barbaric, or lesser. Celtic cultures have had a massive problem with that even later in history.

Woof. So let's skip ahead, to the Celtic Revival, modern Druidry and the place we probably got more of our class fantasy, including the intrinsic tie to nature.

The twentieth century saw a revival of Celtic culture and languages, particularly because a lot of Ireland's history is straight up fucked. They've been victims of deliberate attempts at erasure from the English in older times, they and the Scots both were seen as savages, and it created a fractured view of history, particularly in Ireland. Styles of artwork and even languages were revived in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century as a response to this.

So was Druidism, a "new" religious movement that sprung out of the Celtic Revival glorifying ancient Celtic peoples. This religion, which technically has no continuity with ancient Druids, is where we get our association with nature and the idea that Druids are "alternates" to the classic religious figure, the Cleric. In fact, in 1e, it even was. It was an advanced class like Illusionist, Assassin, and Paladin. It was harder to get into, but was better than just being a cleric.

Listen, before we go any further, I want to say that the origins of Druidism are a Gordian Fucking Knot of information and disinformation, and I'm just doing the best I can. Keep that in mind and do your own wikipedia crawling for fuller information on this stuff. I just don't really have the space to fully explain everything.

Modern Druidism is where we get the idea that they're figures of nature. Ancient Celtic stories is where we find references to magical powers or shapeshifting. The Cleric class in 1e is where we get a lot more of our structure: It's where the idea of the Druid as a more physically capable figure than a wizard comes from, as well as a lot of what's behind its spellcasting abilities.

But half or more of the time I open a book looking for Cool Druid Shit I find lame-ass magic items that grant Tree Stride or new but wildly unhelpful spells. Depending on which edition your playing, shapeshifting is either badass(Pathfinder, 5e), gameified(4e) or useless(Every other edition). Their spell lists are often pretty great, with staples like Flame Blade and Reincarnation remaining cool and useful throughout the years. However, there's also Goodberry, or the ten thousand ways to manipulate and/or speak to plants. Wonderful. You know, Speak With Plant even says in the spell description that plants don't usually have anything useful to say.


The first problem we're going to discuss is Alignment. It's a simple, reductive system that was probably invented to facilitate and maintain epic fantasy tropes in gaming. I'm not a fan. There are plenty of things that are "All good" or "all bad" in most editions of Dungeons and Dragons, but to be a character option, generally something has to have a good, or at least neutral version. So our first problem is that Druidism has to be seen within a certain set of morals to remain viable to play.

Let's put the idea of human sacrifice aside and just look at British and Celtic folklore. You really should dive into this some time, it's fucking wild. Their(and most of the rest of the world's) folklore is 90% full of dangerous shit. There just aren't any mythical figures that are nice. There's shit like skinless demon horses that trick you and drown you, or little gnome guys who murder indiscriminately and dye their hats in the blood. There just isn't any "good" or helpful folklore to pull from here. Evil druids are NPCs by the nature of the alignment in many, many games, and there must be neutral and good druids. So what do they get?

And there's where the first break happens. There's less to draw from, so the writer has far less structure already in place. Realistically, he also has deadlines and other classes to worry about, so some very basic things are trotted out, like being protectors of balance or nature. Nature in most fantasy settings doesn't really need protected. I mean, really, the idea that there's dudes in the forest who will lecture you for trapping rabbits and cutting down trees is absurd in a classic fantasy setting. No city is going to be large enough to make an impact. It makes the Druids seem picky or self centered. For this to be a justified point of view would require a city on the level of Waterdeep...and even there, Forgotten Realms makes no mention of Druids being angry. Probably because it was built along the coast.

Protecting nature definitely comes from the Hippy movement and the surge of conservation awareness in the 90s. D&D 2e was published in 1989, and 3e was published in 2000. In fact, the Hippy movement is probably where Druids took a lot of damage. There must be "good" druids, and the Hippies were preaching peace, love, and happiness, therefore it's easy to present a Druid using all of the Hippy's positive and negative traits since they share a focus on the natural world. The problem being, of course, that by 2018 the Hippy stereotype has gotten tired and irritating. In a fantasy setting it's also woefully anachronistic and takes most people out of immersion.  The idea of conservation itself has also gotten a bad or "lame" reputation, thanks to shows like Captain Planet or most of the conservation PSAs of the 90s.


We also see animals differently in the modern world. While people still routinely get torn apart, eaten, or dragged off even in modern times, I think the average person feels they have a superiority or even a mastery over the animal world. We hunt with rifles and go to zoos. Preferably not on the same day. We have a near infinite access to videos of animals being cute, goofy, stupid or dumb. They're less compelling or "cool" to be associated with. Someone in 1970 surely thought of a tiger as a powerful murder machine and master of his environment. Not to discount the raw killing power of the tiger, but I have also seen numerous pictures of tigers doing goofy house cat stuff like curling up in boxes. It damages the tone, somewhat.


Every class also needs magic items themed toward them. Things that bring the fantasy of the class to mind, that make you better, in some way, at the class's iconic "thing". Even Fighter and Barbarian have a couple outside of the universal ideas of magic armor and weapons. There are two problems here. One is that other classes are more universal and have taken larger "concepts" as their own. So, if you're looking at a stealth related item, it's rogue themed even though a druid might benefit pretty strongly. Spellcasting assistance items are frequently universal, but when they aren't, they're split between arcane and divine. Mostly for ease.

So what we're left with is items that are associated with a quite narrow set of things. Items for shapeshifting, items associated with plants, and items that just lazily cast Druid spells. Shapeshifting items are, depending on your system, necessary. They certainly were in 3.X. They also aren't very fun. They don't give you anything cool. Numbers can be fun, but they're not cool. Items associated with plants are few and far between, and even if they were awesome, you're just not always going to be dealing with trees and bushes. The third category I outright hate, even for non-druids. Barkskin and Tree Stride get shopped around so much that you can easily assume your game is going to include at least one item that lets you cast Tree Stride. It's not even a very useful spell. Anyway, it's not exciting to get one of these items as a Druid. It's just another spell...one you can already cast...and it's more restrictive than just getting an item that lets you memorize another spell, like Pearls of Power.

Let's briefly go over mundane equipment. It can make a character feel much closer to nature to have to craft his own equipment. While that scenario sounds like a lot of fun, you simply don't do a lot of it in PNP style games. It's in their nature. Some editions try to squeeze in the concept by supporting it with class abilities, but overall...you end up having magic equipment at some point, and taking away that equipment as the GM often isn't a good idea. The fantasy of self-made gear never stays for long. 5e is the clear winner here with its lower reliance on magic items, but Pathfinder can also be set up using alternate rules to facilitate this as well. It also has some neat craft and scavenge rules in Ultimate Wilderness. However, this means the whole party has to alter play(even slightly) to help patch an issue with Druid's tone, so it's not really a solution.


The core concepts Druids ended up associated with just aren't ever going to be seen as cool. That's the problem, and the same problem Bard faces. Sneaking around or assassinating people is always gonna be "cool". Being the raging Barbarian with the two handed sword slicing Orcs apart is always going to be awesome. Even Swashbucklers, with their snarky wit and quick swordplay are pretty fucking cool. But Musical Instruments and Plants just...don't cut it. Both classes suffer from being somewhat specific, but also from culture and media moving past them. Iconic characters of virtually every other class are omnipresent in media. Just like Inigo Montoya the Swashbuckler, it's not hard to find a favorite, awesomely stylistic representative of your favorite class. Except...Bard and Druid are a lot fewer. If you discount video games which obviously took inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons like the Warcraft series, there's even less. Pathfinder in particular honestly makes this even harder by introducing so many classes. In 3e or 5e D&D I could certainly make a case for Sam Vimes of Discworld being a Bard...but in Pathfinder? He's obviously an Investigator. The class is practically hand designed for him.

I think the fact that I couldn't come up with even one Druid example for that last bit is telling, too.


This is getting pretty long-winded and rambly, so I'll tell you what. Let's talk about how to improve your Druid's style and avoid stereotypes next week.

Meme Builds: El Kabong

"KABONG!"

WHAM!

"OLE!"


This is one I've wanted to put together for a while, and it meshes with a certain guitar wielding maniac horse so well that I had to marry the two. I wanted so fucking bad to do this with Vigilante, but it doesn't work. Hidden Strike doesn't count as sneak attack for purposes of feats, and the feats in this build are key to its success. Ah well, it's not as though Unchained Rogue is a bad class.

El Kabong
Class: Unchained Rogue

Feats
1 Bludgeoner
3 Sap Adept
5 Sap Master
7 Catch Off Guard
9
11 Quiet Death
13 Improvised Weapon Mastery
15
17
19

Rogue Talents
2 Underhanded
4 Deft Palm
6
8
10 Knock-Out Blow
12
14
16
18
20


The basic idea of this build is that, like El Kabong himself, you come out of fucking nowhere and knock someone to shit with your guitar. Thanks to Catch Off Guard, it doesn't even matter if they see you coming: they're going to be flat footed. Sap Adept improves your damage in open combat, but Sap Master(along with Quiet Death) is your real boost, letting you ambush people and ruin their day. Underhanded works well along with Deft Palm, letting you maximize your already enormous "ambush" damage a few times a day. Yelling KABONG is optional, but recommended.

A small word of caution is that Deft Palm is very poorly worded. As it is, it just lets you conceal weapons you're holding. Yes that includes things like guitars or greatswords. Yes, it means while attacking. Your GM might not cotton to that idea and put limits on the ability. You'll still need it to use with Underhanded, though, since that requires a concealed weapon. Only drop it if your GM's ruling makes it too situational to activate reliably with Underhanded.

Pros. You'll still do okay in regular combat, but you're the master of sneaking ahead and making an upcoming encounter easier by KO'ing a few enemies, or avoiding an encounter entirely. This sort of thing will always require your party to cater toward it, or at least be patient. There is nobody better at this kind of facilitation, though. Catching someone off guard who's close to your CR can easily put them down, and even if your party doesn't wait, you can rush forward to create a surprise round while they're charging frothy-mouthed toward the enemy.

Cons. You have five feats wrapped up in making you better at ambushing people, meaning you're almost(but not quite) on the level of a "non-combat" rogue when it comes to open fights. You won't do badly by any means, but you're not going to rival the fighter's damage like the combat rogues do. You're locked into using bludgeoning weapons and nonlethal damage if you want to use any of your feats. There are also things immune to nonlethal damage, like undead. Finally, with your party dealing mixed damage, you may end up forgetting to kill an enemy(and creating problems later) or having conflicts over whether it's okay to coup de grace an essentially helpless opponent.

Finishing the Character. You don't have a whole lot of room until level 12 or so. Anything works because your ambush capabilities are done: This isn't just a "core" of a build, there's also just...nothing else that helps. the Enforcer feat would give a pretty decent combat debuff. You can take some combat feats or rogue talents to shore up your open combat capabilities, and rogue talents like Opportunist or Crippling Strike work pretty well there. You could also completely throw in with being the noncombat guy and accept that your role is outside of it. Anything works.


For Full Memery. If your GM argues that a guitar isn't a light weapon, or if you just want to use something a little better, there's a spell called Refine Improvised Weapon. You can buy a "permanent" version for cheap to improve your guitar into counting as a sap. Strongly consider taking a few levels of Vigilante for the secret identity. If you want to fight exclusively with your guitar, you can buy Gloves of Improvised Might to avoid having to enchant it as a weapon.

If You Hate Fun. You can keep the improvised weapon stuff around to sneak into buildings while being completely unarmed, or you can just remove it from the build and conceal a sap somewhere on your body. You could also take Improved Unarmed Combat, which would open up taking Knockout Artist for extra pain. Other than that, nothing about how you play this character is going to change. You're just not swinging majestically past your target yelling KABONG and hitting them with a guitar.

Fighter Vs Rogue

"You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life."


I hate this argument. Well, that's not true. I hate not knowing the answer for sure. I'm talking about rogue damage versus fighter damage, something that's been discussed ever since 3.0 came out. Honestly, I never seemed to hear this one back in the days of the backstab multiplier in 1.0 and 2.0, but as soon as sneak attack became 1/2 level in D6es, this has cropped up over and over. This is also probably the biggest target of armchair game balancing, with GMs using house rules like denying rogues their iterative attacks if they use sneak attack. I don't agree with that, but I've always wanted to do this research, so here we go. Here's some ground rules first.

Oh, and if you're from my guild and this is your first time, welcome! Here's a shitload of theorycrafting and math! Maybe uh...maybe skim through the backlog, find a better post, and call that your first one.

We're comparing at level 1, 6, 11 and 16. This means the fighter will be "up" one iterative attack in all circumstances. Outside of a few level ranges(such as 8, 9, 10) this is virtually always the case anyway. This does mean there are a few levels where rogue damage will be closer or even ahead due to the nature of base attack bonus.

I'm condensing the stats. I feel like presenting the stats fully the last time we did a comparison just made for a shitty looking blog filled with essentially unnecessary info. We were making an "all things considered" comparison then, though, so I probably didn't have a choice. We won't be listing every feat or piece of gear, just the relevant ones. We will be talking about the nature of scaling with feats later, though.

The stat spread is 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10 distributed intelligently. They're both human. The fighter is a 2h greatsword build and the rogue will be using a rapier. We'll talk about rogues using TWF later.

I'm not factoring in critical hits. They're a big x-factor I'm not sure how to math out, and I already know they're in favor of the fighter: Sneak attack damage isn't multiplied, and fighters have plenty of feats and BAB to take crit monkey feats if they want. Rogues have less an option and, because of their weapon choice, don't benefit nearly as much from a critical hit. The fighter will have better critical hits, even if he's a build that uses a rapier.

The rogue won't be taking powerful sneak, but he will be taking rogue talents relevant to damage. I just wanted to state overall that powerful sneak isn't worth taking, and I won't be making a bad decision building our rogue just because it's related to sneak attack.

I'm going to do some basic research into appropriate CR enemies and pick one with an average AC for its CR. I'll tell you which one it is, but keep in mind it's just an example and we're not talking about things like DR. Rogues do have disadvantages against certain monsters, but we'll be talking about that below after our comparison test.

The fighter should 'win' overall. Simply put, rogue gets more variation, more skills and more utility than fighter. Fighter is dedicated toward combat and should be overall better at it than rogue.

But the fighter might not win in every situation. Rogue is a 3/4ths AB class, but it's certainly more of a combat class than something like Bard.

@}-,-'--

Punch, Level 1 Fighter
STR 20 DEX 14 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10
BAB: +1
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Power Attack
Relevant Equipment: a greatsword he found in a dumpster

Attack: +7 // 2d6+7 // 9-19, average 14
-->With Power Attack: +6 //  2d6+10 // 12-22 average 17

-~-~-

Judy, Level 1 Rogue
STR 10 DEX 20 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 14
BAB: +0
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Finesse Training, Sneak Attack 1d6
Relevant Equipment: a rapier stolen from a hobo

Attacks: +6 // 1d6+1d6 // 2-12 average 7


Our Monster: Huggermugger, AC 15
Punch's hit chances: 65%
--> With Power Attack: 60%
Judy's hit chances: 60%

No surprise here. Neither class really has its relevant abilities yet, sneak attack is a mere 1d6, and the entire point of a two handed build is that it starts early. Unchained Rogue can start to really compete at level three, where it gets its second rank of Finesse Training.


@}-,-'--

Punch, Level 6 Fighter
STR 21(23) DEX 14 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10
BAB: +6/+1
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Power Attack, Weapon Specialization, Weapon Training 1
Relevant Equipment: +2 Greatsword, Belt of Giant Strength +2

Attacks: +16/+11 // 2d6+14 // 16-26 average 21
-->With Power Attack: +14/+9 // 2d6+20 // 22-32 average 27

-~-~-

Judy, Level 6 Rogue
STR 10 DEX 21(23) CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 14
BAB: +4
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Finesse Training, Bleeding Attack, Debilitating Injury(-4), Sneak Attack +3d6
Relevant Equipment: +2 Rapier, Belt of Incredible Dexterity +2

Attacks: +13 // 1d6+8+3d6+3 // 15-35 average 25


Our Monster: Mi-Go, AC 20
Punch's hit chances: 85% / 60%
-->With Power Attack: 75% / 50%
Judy's hit chances: 70%
-->With Debilitating Injury: 90%

Another one that's probably not surprising. Punch will certainly be dealing about 27 damage, and in an average round will be dealing around 54. Judy can count on Debilitating Injury now and in the future, since it only drops if she whiffs an entire round of attacks, but with it will certainly be dealing about 25 damage. Note that I'm counting Bleeding Attack as damage, but it doesn't stack with itself. Thus, it only deals its damage once per round and never starts "rolling" to become even more. If Punch is unlucky and only hits with one attack, or needs to move, their damage will look quite similar.


@}-,-'--

Punch, Level 11 Fighter
STR 22(28) DEX 14 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10
BAB: +11/+6/+1
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Weapon Training 2
Relevant Equipment: +4 Greatsword, Belt of Giant Strength +6

Attacks: +28/+23/+18 // 2d6+21 // 23-33 average 28
-->With Power Attack: +25/+20/+15 // 2d6+30 // 32-42 average 37

-~-~-

Judy, Level 11 Rogue
STR 10 DEX 22(28) CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 14
BAB +8/+3
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Finesse Training, Bleeding Attack, Debilitating Injury(-6), Sneak Attack +6d6
Relevant Equipment: +4 Rapier, Belt of Incredible Dexterity +6

Attacks: +22/+17 // 1d6+13+6d6+6 // 26-61 Average 43


Our Monster: Stone Golem, AC 26
Punch's hit chances: 95% / 90% / 65%
-->With Power Attack: 95% / 75% / 50%
Judy's hit chances: 85% / 60%
-->With Debilitating Injury: 95% / 90%

As we go up in level, damage seems to swing toward the rogue at first glance. However, the fighter will be doing an average of 111 damage if he hits with all his attacks(Which is likely), and the rogue will be striking for 86 if he hits with all of his. However, a single hit for the rogue is more valuable, and his damage is more random: It could be quite a lot higher if he gets lucky. As usual, he also proves more mobile due to a single strike hitting harder on average than the two handed fighter. Thanks to Unchained Rogue's debilitating injury, his hit chances are far higher than his attack bonus suggests.


@}-,-'--

Punch, Level 16 Fighter
STR 24(30) DEX 14 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10
BAB: +16/+11/+6/+1
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Specialization, Weapon Training 3
Relevant Equipment: +4 Flaming Burst Vicious Greatsword, Belt of Giant Strength +6, Gloves of Dueling(+2/+2)

Attacks: +37/+32/+27/+22 // 2D6+28+1d6+2d6 // 33-58 average 45
-->With Power Attack: +32/+27/+22/+17 // 2d6+43+1d6+2d6 // 48-73 average 60

-~-~-

Judy, Level 16 Rogue
STR 10 DEX 24(30) CON 16 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 14
BAB +12/+7/+2
Relevant Abilities: Weapon Focus, Finesse Training, Bleeding Attack, Debilitating Injury(-8), Sneak Attack +8d6
Relevant Equipment: +5 Flaming Burst Rapier, Belt of Incredible Dexterity +6

Attacks: +27/+22/+17 // 1d8+15+8d6+8 // 32-79 average 55


Our Monster: Cornugon, AC 35
Punch's hit chances: 95%/90%/65%/40%
-->With Power Attack: 90%/65%/40%/15%
Judy's hit chances: 65%/40%/15%
--.With Debilitating Injury: 95%/80%/50%

Please note before I go any further that AC starts to vary wildly at higher CRs. Monsters get more complex and you start seeing more "casters" or monsters with other forms of protection. As for AC, I saw values as low as 30 and as high as 39. Monsters tend to vary more in general at this point and it's a bit harder to gauge what challenge we're looking at.

In an average round, Punch is going to be doing 120 damage if he uses power attack, with strong potential for more, especially if him and Judy are in the same party: Flanking will be a +2, and her Debilitating Injury will be another 2 points in most situations. Judy will certainly deal 110 in an average round, with her damage varying pretty wildly based on if the dice like her or not. She has potential to beat Punch's damage in an average round, even if he doesn't roll poorly. She also has a large potential to underperform compared to him, and Punch also has less need to be lucky, since most of his damage comes from flat bonuses. He's also able to buy weapons with lower numerical bonuses in exchange for extra damage abilities, thanks to the gloves of dueling and his overall really high attack bonuses.

If they hit with all of their attacks, Punch's average round will be 240, and Judy's will be 165. If Punch doesn't hit his final iterative attack(which he probably won't a lot of the time) his damage still beats hers on average at 180. Power Attack lets Punch leverage his high attack bonuses, and a different build(one less focused on damage) would have to beat Judy in other ways, such as defense, combat options, or maneuvers. If it's the kind of fighter that's only swinging with a one handed weapon, Judy's going to beat them in terms of raw damage.


@}-,-'--


I feel like I mostly made my point, but we did find out some interesting stuff. Before we get to all of our neat findings, I want to talk a lot about the thing I left out. I left it out partly because I knew I didn't have to include it to prove that rogue damage will lag slightly behind a fighter, and partly because how often this thing comes up is something that depends heavily on your GM.

Let's talk about points of failure. Punch and Judy both share some situations where their damage could be lowered or negated: Things like damage reduction, flying enemies, clever positioning or being disarmed. However, due to the nature of Rogue, Judy has several points of failure Punch doesn't. Let's go over them.

She needs to flank or attack a flat-footed opponent. Flanking will be 90% of what she does here, and this is less of a restriction than a lot of people think. Judy might end up moving more often, but even a party of average intelligence will be moving in concert with her to allow her to shred multiple opponents. It'll come up in some fights that she just can't get to a flanked opponent, but mostly, this one isn't a huge deal.


Uncanny Dodge makes Sneak Attack Basically impossible. Most games see enemies with class levels at least a few times. Classes with Uncanny Dodge make it very hard to get sneak attack off by limiting you to Feint, which never really works well in the first place. In most situations facing an Uncanny Dodge foe, you're just going to end up losing Sneak Attack. You can overcome it by having 4 more levels in a Sneak Attack providing class, but if you're fighting a fair challenge, they're either going to be weenies, and thus your sneak attack damage matters a lot less anyway, or you're not going to be 4 or more levels higher than them.

She can not use sneak attack on a target with concealment. This can mean anything from poor lighting to the blur spell. There is a feat that gets around this called Shadow Strike, which Judy will probably be taking if she's serious about being a combat rogue. That and things like darkvision are your only way around it, and a rogue without Shadow Strike may find themselves asking the party mage to dispel buffs for him.

Things immune to critical hits are immune to precision damage. This means Elementals, Swarms, Oozes, and Incorporeal enemies if she doesn't have a ghost touch weapon. I find these don't really come up that often in games, but you never know. The GM might even toss these at the party especially because they're immune to sneak attack.

Things with Fast Healing or Regeneration will basically negate Debilitating Injury. You saw that a lot of Judy's "To hit bonus" actually comes from Debilitating Injury. It requires her to keep hitting the target, and it means her primary round might be weak if she can't get that first hit off, but it's not a huge deal. However, any amount of healing removes debilitating injury. This means that if she's fighting something with Fast Healing or Regeneration, debilitating injury will be removed at the beginning of their round, and Judy essentially has to take her "opening round" again, hoping to hit with her primary attack to assist her iterative attacks.


It's easy to forget how many ways a rogue loses their damage. Really, even if a GM doesn't really care about varying his enemies, there will be times where Judy just simply can't get to a flanked enemy and ends up losing a lot of damage. It'll happen. In games where the GM uses a lot of different types of enemies, it'll come up where she underperforms compared to Punch. Ideally, this is countered by situations where she can sneak ahead and soften up an upcoming fight with subterfuge or stealthy killing.

So what did we learn today? Well, we learned how important Debilitating Injury is. In most situations, it floats the rogue's hit chances up to where Fighter's are, and leaves their sole difference being lacking that extra attack. We also learned that Rogue's damage probably got a reputation for being ultra sick based on people getting lucky rolls. At higher levels, Rogue's minimum and maximum damage start to differ a ton. It's easy to notice the party rogue dealing a lot of damage and forget to take into account how good he's rolling that night. You're not looking at his dice, after all.

It was also way closer than I thought it'd be. There are levels where the Rogue even wins out, and if the fighter goes for a lower damage build like TWF or shield defensive feats, the Rogue will win consistently. This is partly due to the fact that "Two Handed Power Attack" is the only great way to build for pure damage due to the pre-reqs and required feats of Two Weapon Fighting. One handed builds don't have much in the way of damage boosts, are obviously going to lose to the Rogue, who's a one handed build but with a ton of D6es added. Fighters built toward things like Shields or Maneuvers obviously have advantages over the Rogue...but damage isn't going to be one of them.


One final note. I promised we'd talk about Two Weapon Fighting, and here we are. In general, TWF builds are not good at dealing pure damage: it can potentially outdamage to a two handed build, but it's not that much better. Additionally, it's a huge amount of feats and requirements compared to the two handed build being almost completely universal. TWF and its brutal pre-reqs either need a way around them(Ranger, Slayer) or a way to build for dex to damage without relying on Slashing Grace, like Rogue. It's a very taxing build that's best for spamming people with combat maneuvers, or getting a bit of extra damage out of your shield. If you're looking for raw damage, two-handed characters do pretty well with just one feat, Power Attack. In Pathfinder, this is still quite a great feat, but if you're playing 3.X? Hoo boy.

Unchained Rogue is one of the only places this really works as a pure damage build. Debilitating Injury is necessary for its success. For the (low low) price of a lot of feats, Rogue can deal damage that matches, or maybe even surpasses the Fighter. This is because they get Sneak Attack on every qualifying attack, and that raises the value of things like off-hand attacks, secondary natural attacks, or speed weapons. In addition to that, Rogues already build Dex primarily, so they don't need to stretch their build to take Two Weapon Fighting.

But you're reliant on Debilitating Injury more than ever. Your hit roll will suffer with that -2 to attack, and you need to make up for it. You may find yourself doing things like multiclassing with fighter, buying your weapons up to +5 before dipping into cool abilities, or not using Two Weapon Fighting until you have a few rounds of Debilitating Injury under your belt. You'll do a lot of damage, but you need to keep in mind these situations and choices are going to affect it. Never forget that "potential" damage needs to be compared to realistic situations.

I should probably do a whole post on that, but to explain it quickly: It doesn't matter what someone is technically capable of doing. It matters what they're capable of doing, and how often.  The TWF rogue will get his damage most of the time, probably, but the situations where he doesn't don't count for nothing. You can't judge something as wildly diverse and varied as pen and paper games just by what numbers are on the page, and keep that in mind when you're thinking about this post too. Rogue having nice damage doesn't mean it's a "power" class. Nothing we found out today means Fighter sucks, either. There are ways to judge how useful a class is in general, and there are even classes that objectively suck, but most times, the decision process is muddier and more complex than just "thing bad" and "thing good".

Really, Two Weapon Fighting or no, Rogue's damage is reliant on the character creating opportunities for himself. If he can do that, through cleverness and guile, he can dish out a lot of punishment. Using your brain is, after all, the entire point of the class.

Pathfinder Balance Discussion: Feats

"There's no such thing as fair or unfair in battle. There is only victory.


Or in your case, defeat."



I think Pathfinder has better balance than D&D 3.5 did. I think it's good enough to be your primary high fantasy game, and I think most groups won't have a problem in terms of balance. But I never said it was perfect. I'm sorry if you ever got that impression from me and my ever-present advice to avoid constant house-rules, rule bending, lawyering, lying, or armchair developer meddling by using the book whenever possible. No, that advice exists primarily to scare you away from a solution that's worse than the problem. There are absolutely things I'm not sure of, and probably even a few I'm certain shouldn't be allowed in the game. They're not always where you think, though. A lot of the time, something that sounds really powerful(like slashing grace) really doesn't make the impact you think it does.

So today I thought I'd go over some of the feats I look at and worry while sucking on my teeth. I'm going to focus on things that are on the "too powerful" end of the scale, because I think we're all pretty familiar with the other end of that spectrum. We all know feats like Run or Endurance never come up and I'm not gonna pad out the length of this post by reminding anyone.


Crane Wing. So I'm kinda talking about all three of the Crane Style feats, but the big culprit is the middle feat, Crane Wing. The errata'd version is that it gives you +4 to AC vs. melee attacks until something misses by four or less. With fighting defensively and all three feats, this is seven points of AC, with only some of it being conditional. Armor Class isn't a great thing to stack since you're nearly always going to have a good chance to be hit by primary(full attack bonus) attacks, but this is a lot of AC as well as some retaliation damage as icing. You need to keep a hand free, but...hell, I'd say that's a bonus over other styles outright requiring you to be fighting unarmed.

Why am I not sure? Well, even though this is a similar amount of AC for a similar number of feats than the fucking Knight Defense tree in SWD20...it's partially conditional. You're also more likely to be fighting monsters in Pathfinder, meaning more natural attacks and more being hit despite the AC you're stacking. There is also an "all things considered" factor with Jedi seeing as how they get that AC on top of Deflect. Did you know they can deflect slug weapons as well? They just can't reflect the shot since the bullet burns up in the lightsaber's blade.


Sap Master. Double your Sneak Attack damage if you're dealing nonlethal damage. Obviously this is to facilitate being better at ambush fighting, silently clearing out areas or knocking guards out. It uh...it doubles your sneak attack damage. An analysis of Rogue vs. Fighter damage is coming soon, but I'm pretty sure that fucking doubling the sneak attack dice would put it over Fighter.

Why might it be okay? You gotta read carefully. You only get the bonus when the victim is flat footed. This means you don't receive the bonus on flanking, which is your primary method of activating sneak attack. Getting a full attack action along side the Sap Master bonus requires a more coordinated set up with another character, and I'm tempted to say that doing so is worth the reward. As for its use in sneaking around? So long as your GM remembers how perception and combat works, this is okay too. Hitting someone is combat, and combat makes noise other people might hear depending on how far away they are. You're probably also going to end up taking a feat like Quiet Death to bolster this capability anyway.


Eldritch Heritage Tree. This one is kind of famous. It lets you take a limited amount of Sorcerer bloodline abilities as feats. Despite being level-locked and requiring you taking Skill Focus, you can get some pretty hefty abilities. The basic version can net you some nice but fairly benign things like getting a familiar or claw attacks or something, but by the time you're taking Improved or Greater Eldritch Heritage, we're getting to things that were probably balanced around being given to a 1/2 AB class. Orc and Abyssal Bloodline get inherent bonuses to Strength starting at level 9. Orc gets the amazing Power of Giants, which is a size large boost as well as hefty bonuses to STR and CON. It's not even once a day, it's your level in minutes. It'll be up basically any time you want it.

What's our counterpoint? Well, outside of Abyssal and Orc, these abilities are a lot more okay. There are still some gems like Shadow Bloodline granting Hide in Plain Sight or Fae granting Greater Invisibility, but nothing else is really as insane as Orc. I'm fairly sure the person who created the Orc bloodline had no conception of these abilities ever being given to classes other than Sorcerer. Given the fact that a normal character who reaches Power of Giants has fifteen levels in a 1/2 AB class and probably started with a moderate-to-bad STR, this is just a nice buff he can stack with Tenser's Transformation or something and turn him into a fighter for a limited time. Given to a fighter, though? Hoo boy.


Dervish Dance. I swear I'll stop beating this horse and be brief. Dervish Dance's wording says it can't be used if you're "carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand". You generally want your off hand to be occupied somehow if you're a melee type, so this is its intended drawback. However, since it was worded without foresight in mind(Magus wasn't out yet) it gets to loophole past its drawback and let Magus use Spell Combat and Dervish Dance at the same time. This became a somewhat popular and  famous way to build a Magus.

I don't have a counterpoint for this one. Really, if your GM lets you use this loophole, you should be suspicious. He probably just doesn't care...but he might be the type of person who thinks loophole fuckery is the way the game is intended to be played. "Logically" is still the worst word in PNP gaming, but "Technically" is probably a close second.


Leadership. Do I even have to say it? Action economy is the most important thing in any pen and paper game ever invented and this is basically the only way to directly increase yours. Your cohort is two levels lower than you, sure, but that's still a ton of power and utility. Cohorts or even followers can be dedicated to actions not normally worth it for PCs to take like Assist Attack, Assist Defense, or things like bracing a door or holding a light source.

What might make it okay? It all just depends on what that character intends to do with it, man. Someone who wants a cohort just to cast some utility spells or roll some skills probably isn't the end of the world. If you accept the fact that the cohort gets reduced amounts of treasure, the primary PC having to spend his own money on the cohort is a big mitigating factor. I know that the book says that the cohort gets an equal share, but I have yet to meet a person who sincerely thinks it should work like that. The mitigating factor for someone's feat shouldn't be how it impacts people who didn't take that feat. Ah, but let's keep this discussion for another day.


Cornugon Smash. This is another pretty blunt one. Basically, if you take Shatter Defenses, you want a super easy way to make people shakened because that makes them flat footed to you. There's three ways on the table: The conditional and somewhat expensive Boar Style tree, the nonlethal-only Enforcer, or Cornugon Smash. With this one, all you need to do is Power Attack, which is something you're gonna do anyway if you're using Shatter Defenses. That's the whole point, after all.

But it's probably not nearly as bad if the character isn't shooting for Shatter Defenses and just wants to be scary and cause mild debuffs. It's easier to activate than Enforcer or Boar Style, but those feats still exist and it's not like they're too bad to take. Boar Style is probably my favorite style, after all. Shatter Defenses also doesn't proc on your primary attack no matter what you do anyway.


Slashing Grace. I'm a pretty big defender of this feat, but a lot of people go back and forth on it. That's why I'm including it despite saying up at the top that it's not that bad. Being able to get your dexterity to damage is pretty big, since it means you can forgo putting any points into STR and put them into DEX instead, which generally gives you a bigger return. STR is only good for melee damage, hauling shit around, and a few generally disused skills. DEX gives reflex save, AC, and plenty of great skills. It's a very powerful thing to be able to add melee damage to this and essentially remove the large penalty of weapon finesse.

But in addition to the Weapon Finesse weapon restriction and slashing damage, Slashing Grace doesn't let you do anything with your off hand. It doesn't have Dervish Dance's loophole, either. In Pathfinder(and 3.X) you always want to be doing something with your off hand, whether that's a weapon, a shield, or two-handing your weapon. The only time you won't be doing this is if you can't (like swashbuckler), if you want to keep a hand open for casting and don't have a decent two handed weapon(like bard or cleric), or if gaining the ability to do this would be too many resources spent for your liking, like rogue. Slashing Grace almost entirely removes your ability to use your other hand, meaning it's best for classes like swashbuckler, bard, cleric, or anyone else trying to get a leg-up on fighter or barbarian. A primary fighting class is going to be giving up something important if he uses Slashing Grace.


So I hope you enjoyed point/counterpoint on some stuff I'm still not entirely sure of. Keep in mind that I'm still unsure of the balance of these feats even though I provided counterpoint. Expect the next time to be a collection of spells, archetypes and items since I don't think I have enough of any of those to fill their own post. As always, I don't recommend you jump the gun and try to re-balance your game by banning these. The potential of something to be unbalancing and the reality of your game are often two very different things, and I think most people are primarily concerned with building a cool character over a powerful one. Even people like me who enjoy the mechanics of PNP systems are usually just picking a wild or neat concept and making it fit into a game more than trying to make the most powerful thing we can.

Cracking the Egg: Kineticist

"There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang - positive energy and a negative energy. Only a select few Firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance, and in the moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance: creating lightning."


I don't like most class guides. It's no secret that I think most people who talk about Pen and Paper games on the Internet have really suspect opinions. Really, you should take everything you read online with a grain of salt and put in your own research. This applies to everything you're able to research by yourself, but it applies doubly so to pen and paper game mechanics. People get funny ideas, and a lot of them persist simply on the basis of some kind of cultural momentum.

A lot of what people want out of guides are feat, archetype or spell suggestions anyway. Most people see particularly Pathfinder and 3.X as being heavily reliant on system mastery and want a leg-up on thumbing through huge amounts of content to find the gems. That's not necessarily the case, but I can't really fault them. Especially when your game allows everything in the system, resources like PFSRD.com can make it feel like you need to sift through huge mounds of dirt looking for gold.

I never felt like that. There are far fewer "smoking gun" feats and abilities than people think. I never thought I'd do class guides at all, until I read Kineticist. So we're going to start with one of the strangest classes I've ever seen, then move on to other, more easily understood classes. I definitely feel like it took me weeks, off and on, to completely understand this class. Today I'm going to share thoughts on the class so maybe other people won't have to do what I did and make a conspiracy board complete with red string all over it to try and make sense of this class. It's fun and effective, but the way it's put together is a deceptive mess, because it was designed by a MIT Polymath. It makes perfect sense to him with his double handful of degrees and massive IQ. Today I'm going to crack the egg for the rest of us.

First off, you're going to need to read along with me. Second, I won't be discussing Void or Wood, I'm not as adept with them and they weren't created concurrently with the other elements. You'll see why that's important momentarily. Second, I might miss a feat or two from the Kineticist splat since I haven't been able to grab that book yet due to financial issues.

A final note. Holy shit, is this long. Sorry! I promise other class guides won't be this hefty. Kineticist is very complex.


Part One: Ability Scores. 


This is pretty simple. Dexterity is going to be vital for your attack rolls since you never get an enhancement bonus, and Constitution determines your maximum burn. The class is centered around you taking burn sparingly, and trying to reduce your blast's burn cost to zero as often as possible, only going higher in important or dire situations. Your burn cap never goes up over the whole course of the class, it's always going to be 3+CON mod. Keep this in mind and don't go ham when you don't need to. If you want race suggestions, Caligni Dark Folk and Hobgoblin are the "power" races, and Tiefling is nearly always a good choice. You also have the freedom to choose small sized races like Gnome since none of your damage is determined by size. I'd lean on taking a DEX race before CON if you're not going for a "power" race, because Kineticist has limited sources for hitroll bonus, but either/or would be fine, I think.


Part Two: Primary Element Selection.


Yeah sorry, we have to dive deep already. The most important thing to understand about Kineticist is that every element gets something. They don't all seem equal at first glance, especially with Fire getting the only energy compound blast. You need to look at the element as a whole to understand where its strengths lie: Utility talents, infusion talents, defense talent and blasts. They all get something good somewhere, and that means there's going to be a "must take" ability somewhere regardless of your element. Since this research is the most time consuming part of understanding this class, I'm going to give you a leg up.


Aether: Take this element if you want excellent battlefield control and some damn good out-of-combat utility. While you're in combat, you get things like Telekinetic Maneuvers, Kinetic Cover, Telekinetic Globe and Force Barrier to control things. You get some okay options for damage, including being one of the three elements that get Suffocate, and having okay direct damage options in Foe Throw or Many Throw. Disintegrating Infusion is unique to Aether, and provides a way to gamble for more damage, since your base damage will be low. Even if you double up on Aether with Expanded Element, all you get is basically an energy simple blast. By level 10 or so, you can expect your main job to be fucking up the battlefield and inconveniencing the fight's major players, and also doing a little damage.

Your non-combat utility is probably the best out of the base elements. You get Telekinetic Invisibility and Telekinetic Finesse, which kind of makes you the party rogue. Touchsight and its brother the reactive one are great for spying on people, which most parties will end up doing at least once. Telekinetic Haul and even Basic Telekinesis are good for solving environmental challenges and you get an ad-hoc fly via Self Telekinesis and its upgrade...which may or may not be useful in combat. This is also one of two elements that can heal. It's not a huge amount and forces somebody to take burn, so you're not likely to use it in combat except for emergencies. For between-fight healing, though, Kinetic Healer is great.

Aether really doesn't have any stinker abilities, and I had to force myself to stop just naming all of them in the suggestions paragraph. Your damage isn't going to be great(You'll never get a real composite blast) but the utility more than makes up for it. You might be tempted to take Pushing Infusion, but I'd recommend against that. I'd sooner take Extended Range or an early Kinetic Blade. If you want Many Throw, you need Extended Range anyway. Pushing Infusion is quite expensive to really get use out of. Bowling Infusion at level 2, however. Great stuff.

Air: Air is the first element I'd say is a good middle of the road. It'll do more damage than Aether, but still has some decent utility and buffs. It has the highest range of all the elements if you're into that and some great AoE infusions like Chaining, Cylone, Torrent and Cloud. In fact, only air and water get Cloud, which can make for some nice area denial, especially when stacked with grappling infusion.

But let's not beat around the bush. You're here for Wings of Air. Yeah you have to take Air Cushion(or the less useful Air's Leap) to reach it, but you have the Fly spell at will with no strings attached by level 6. This is what you showed up for. You also get Haste as a utility wild talent. It takes a point of burn, sure, but for burn-to-damage efficiency in a party of 4 or more you can't go wrong with haste. You also get evasion via Aerial Evasion as well. Later on you get some non-combat utility with weather control spells. They're powerful, and a little underrated since it's not so obvious how you apply them to situations. Never underestimate how useful it can be to destroy structures and encampments and also avoid direct blame for it. Applied carefully and they might not even realize someone used a spell.

Air is a pretty good switch hitter. You can deal decent damage, and you still have some other stuff to bring to the table. As for stinker abilities...I don't think Air Shroud and its upgrade are likely to come up that often, and you've got limited slots. Magnetic Infusion could be great if you've got someone to coordinate with, but it is two burn, so I'm just not sure it's better than just using empower or maximize. Unless there's only one foe on the battlefield, there's better things to be spending your limited burn cap on. Its defense ability is lackluster, but you're stuck with it unless you shoot for another with expanded element, which may not be worth your time. I also don't see the point of Windsight. It's pretty fiddly to use.

Earth: I feel bad for earth. I honestly don't want to say something like "Just take Aether" but I'm struggling to avoid that phrase. It doesn't have a whole lot going for it, though. For combat, it doesn't have much in the way of AoE, just impale, Deadly Earth, and Fragmentation. They're not bad, they're just all unreliable in some way. You don't really get extra single-target damage to make up for it, though. In fact, Earth gets Rare Metal Infusion to get past substance-related DR, which is a solution to a problem the other elements don't really have. It has only one simple blast. Fire and Aether only have one as well, but they both get something nice later to make up for it: Aether gets a force composite blast, and Fire gets the game's only energy composite blast. Earth...don't really get anything for it.

As for non-combat, a lot of it is limited to working with earth and stone, but that's not a turn-off just yet. Let's face it, a lot of games are going to be dealing with or being around earth and stone constantly. Even big cities use stone in their structure. So your key utilities being Earth Glide, Shift Earth and Stone Sculptor isn't that bad. You sure do get the nice stuff late, though. Earth Glide also requires you to take Earth Climb, which doesn't really remain useful after you get Earth Glide. That's a pet peeve of mine.

I want to like Earth. I do, but it doesn't bring much to the table. Stinker abilities? To avoid saying "most of them" I'll point out Enduring Earth is pretty useless. It's a duration buff, but I can't really find anything except for Deadly Earth that would really benefit from it. There might be a niche build in here that just buffs the shit out of Deadly Earth blasts...but you do have to wait for level 12 for that build to work out. So I'm just not sure. Earth's just not very good. Sorry.

Fire: Okay, so there's this advertisement for Planet Fitness. It's a pointlessly insulting dig at "Gym Rats" where it's implied that a bodybuilder can't think beyond "I LIFT THINGS UP AND I PUT THEM DOWN". I hate to relate anything to that ad, but if you replace his phrase with "I LIGHT THINGS ON FIRE" then you have Fire Kineticist. It has a load of AoE infusions, it has a blinding substance infusion, and it has the class's only energy composite blast. It also has Pure-Flame infusion for ignoring spell resistance, and Searing Flame for reducing fire resistance. Fire's Fury also means they get bonus damage. It's also the only one who gets Unraveling Infusion to pair blasts with Dispel Magic.

Sounds awesome, right? Remember how I said every element pays for what it gets? First off, all of your utility begins and ends in combat. You get essentially the same ghetto flight as Aether in Flame Jet. You get smoke storm for a bit of area denial. You don't get any out-of-combat utility. The other problem is that while the other elements get at least two types of damage, Fire only gets one. Fire can deal with fire resistance, but it can be shut down by an enemy who's immune to fire, and...I don't know what to tell you about that. I know it sounds really mean because it basically shuts you down entirely, but it's gonna happen at least once. Fire is the most common resistance and immunity.

Beyond that (potentially large) disadvantage, treat Fire like playing a fighter. You've still got your skills, but they're the only non-combat utility you get. All of your abilities are focused toward fighting. Fire doesn't have a lot of bad abilities, at least. I'd steer clear of heat adaptation unless you want Heat Wave later. I don't see the point of Fire Sight at all, except for gimmicking with smoke storm. Even then, it won't help your friends, and you can still just aoe the smoke storm area. Trail of Flames doesn't seem very good either. It sounds decent, but you're going to already try not to move at all, and Wall of Fire just isn't very much damage. Oh, and your defense talent is the worst of all the elements. Have fun with that.

Water: Water is the other switch hitter like Air. It gets similar AoE options like Spray and Torrent, it has some control like Kinetic Cover and Slick, and it also has a bit of utility. It's the other element that gets Cloud(see above) and it also gets the unique Chilling Infusion to potentially caused the staggered condition. Through careful movement and lucky failed saves, this can shut down a crowd of people pretty well if combined with spray, cloud or torrent. Tsunami comes late, but it can serve as decent area denial or a way to sweep up and group people up to blast with an aoe. Water is also likely the best defensive element, with Shimmering Mirage being a permanent 20% miss chance and Shroud of Water being a shield bonus to AC. Water also gets Suffocate like Aether and Air does.

You do get some utility too. You get Ice Path, which is air walk at will. It requires you to take the not-very-useful Icewalker, however. You get Kinetic Healer like Aether does. If you're playing a game near water, you get the awesome Waterdancer(and its upgrade) and Water Manipulator.

I'll be blunt. Water will do pretty good if you're in a traditional game and amazing if you're in a sea-focused game or one that will see a lot of coastline. It doesn't have a whole lot of powers I'd steer clear from, either. I mean, unless you need me to tell you Ice Sculptor isn't going to come up.


Part Three: Expanded Element


Your next big choice is Expanded Element at levels 7 and 15. For choosing another element, you get one of its blasts, all the composite blasts you qualify for, its "basic" utility, and the ability to take that element's wild talents, qualifying at -4 your effective level. If you choose your primary element, you gain your other simple blast(if available), all of the composite blasts, and a single infusion or utility wild talent.

Most of the time, you're going to pick your primary element for your first Expanded Element, and here's why. First off, you get infusion wild talents at levels 1,3, 5, 9, 13, 17 and 19. Notice those gaps at 7 and 15? Choosing your primary element again and taking an infusion wild talent puts you a little ahead of the game for infusions, and 3rd level infusions is where most elements start getting the nice meaty ones. If you pick a second element, it puts you behind.

Second, your second element's utility wild talents are only available at -4 effective level. Especially at 7th level, this means your second element abilities are competing with primary element talents which are just starting to get really meaty. Between 6 and 10 you're still going to be beelining for utility wild talents like Telekinetic Maneuvers, Wings of Air,  or Shimmering Mirage. Unless you plan on taking a lot of Extra Wild Talent feats(something you actually might be doing) you still have a ton of things in your primary element to take between 7 and 15.

So the advice is to choose your primary element at 7, then make the decision to take an additional element later at 15 if you want. There might be something to be said of someone who takes three separate elements just to cherry pick all the best utility, but I'm a bit suspicious of this plan. Every element except for Earth has a ton of utility wild talents you want to be taking, and I wouldn't recommend Earth for your primary element in the first place.


Part Four: Feats


Right here is where a tumbleweed blows by. Extra Wild Talent is something a lot of kineticists are going to end up taking to bolster or patch holes. It lets you take talents at -2 effective level, even if it's an expanded element. Kinetic Leap isn't a bad choice for anyone who isn't taking Air. Delay Blast might have some uses if you're being sneaky. Otherwise, what you're doing with feats is taking Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, then choosing between three schools of thought, which weave together simply because there's not a whole lot of purely kineticist feats.

One. A whole lot of non-combat utility. I kinda like this one since you're already "set" for combat just by being a kineticist. You can take skill bonus feats or some of the various utility from Ultimate Intrigue with complete impunity. You can load out a build that other classes might call a "social character" or rogue without losing any damage. Delay Blast can help out this type of character a lot, since a delayed blast will attract attention to the spot you were five rounds ago. While sneaking, you can make it 150 feet away assuming you don't have the ability to sneak at full speed. That's a lot of ground.

Two. Extra Wild Talent. You can take Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and one other(like Weapon Focus or Weapon Finesse) then just take Extra Wild Talent a shitload of times. I don't know if you can find something useful EVERY TIME but I bet you could. Since Extra Wild Talent is nice for your secondary elements, this is probably the only route for a Kineticist that doesn't double up his element at level 7.

Three. You can set up for combat by taking feats relevant to Kinetic Blade and Kinetic Whip like Weapon Finesse, the Combat Expertise tree, or other melee focused feats. Kinetic Blade/Whip is (usually) superior damage so I can see plenty of Kineticists going this route. See below for commentary on Kinetic Blade.

The world is kind of your oyster here. Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are really the only "Required" feats, along with possibly Weapon Focus since Kineticist has very few options for to-hit bonuses. Kinetic Blade builds will also require Weapon Finesse since you'll want to stack DEX for when you need a ranged blast, and you don't ever get STR on these melee attacks anyway.


Part Four-B: Notes on particular Wild Talents


I was going to put this later but that seemed a bit disingenuous. In the sense of organization, I'm shoving this in here to keep your decision making suggestions in the same place. I'm going to go over some specific universal talents, because a few of them are really fucking important.

Kinetic Blade. This infusion is your path to your best single target damage, and there's very little reason to skip it. Kinetic Blade is a level one infusion, and there's not a whole lot at that level to take anyway. It lets you take iterative attacks with your kinetic blast, which is a huge amount of potential damage after level 8. You may have a lower chance to hit with your attacks after your first, but you're only giving up elemental overflow damage for that chance: Hitting twice will more than make up for it, since even at level 18, elemental overflow bonus damage is +12.

Kinetic Whip. This is a damn good infusion, since it gives you reach with your Kinetic Blade and lets you take Attacks of Opportunity with it. Hitting with those is going to be a lot of fucking damage, and you're prime to be making them in a very wide area. The 10ft reach also helps out your positioning to make and keep making full attack actions. It's a damn good infusion, but since it comes at the same level as a lot of other decent infusions, I can understand putting it off or skipping it entirely. If you want to focus on Single Target damage, however, this is a must-take along with its little brother Kinetic Blade.

Kinetic Fist. You'd only take this infusion if you're taking the Elemental Ascetic archetype which centers around it, or if you're multiclassing into an unarmed build. Multiclassing a Kineticist isn't a bad idea, but it's such a can of worms that I'm not going into it right now. If you want something for melee strikes, Kinetic Fist won't be more damage than Kinetic Blade unless you're building around Kinetic Fist entirely...and at that point, you should be seriously considering Elemental Ascetic anyway.

Flurry of Blasts. If someone can explain to me why you'd ever take this, I'd be grateful. It's so bad that I'm actually suspicious that I'm missing something vital about it.

Mobile Blast. Here's the thing. It costs a move action to direct it, and by level 5 you'll have Empower Metakinesis. So if you have to move it every time, it won't ever be better damage than just using Gather Power. That means this power is only useful in the following situations: Enemies who won't or can't move, spamming people with a substance infusion, or trying to herd people away from making full attack actions. I don't see any of these happening very often, and level three is very crowded with nice infusions. Kinetic Whip is the same or better deterrent to Full Attack Actions, and won't cost your move actions.

Wall. This isn't a terrible infusion or anything, but you need to be aware that the wall isn't ever going to actually block movement. It's just cover and damage. If you want a wall to block movement, only Aether can do that with Force Barrier. I should also note that this isn't a good infusion if you want to purely deal damage, since its damage isn't that great. Like Cloud, you'll be using this to deny an area or punish people for moving around.

Kinetic Form. It's only one burn, but all this is getting you is carry weight, +1 to CMD, and reach bonuses. If you're primarily using Kinetic Whip, this is a way to stack reach along with the feat Lunge. Otherwise, this isn't great for a 5th level utility wild talent.

Spark of Life. You're summoning creatures who are an absurdly low CR for the level you get this power at. This doesn't mean it's a terrible power, but it sure as hell isn't your secret path to huge damage. Consider their out-of-combat applications first and actually using them in combat a distant second.

Ride the Blast. This is a pretty good power, I just want to point out that this can not only get you into melee combat, it can put you at the other side of the target, immediately into a flanking position with someone who charged.


Part Five: Dealing Damage


Okay so we're done with the choices your making on a macro level, since I don't think you guys need help with skills. I made a skill tier list already, so I'm going to respect your intelligence and not make a big list of "skills Kineticists should take". This means I've skipped to some commentary on how to act in combat.

If you're primarily concerned with single target damage, you're looking at Kinetic Blade or Kinetic Whip, as I said. This turns you into a more traditional melee role, with your actions focused on positioning for and making full attack actions. You can happily switch-hit, and will probably be doing a lot of blasting before 8th level anyway, but the second you can somehow get two attacks, Kinetic Blade becomes very important.

In D20 games, AoE damage is a superior total amount of damage but usually not as important as good single target damage since you're not putting any targets down. This is sometimes a design thing where some GMs refuse to use multiple lesser enemies or design around individuals being more tough. Even though your mileage may vary with this sort of thing, Kineticist excels at AoE. Ranged blasting and most of the AoE infusions keep you safe via range, and it can be brutal if you stack up damage with an arcane caster or another kineticist.

If you're at range, whether you're planning on AoE or single target, you want to be reducing your burn to zero as often as possible, and, related to that, using Gather Power often. Gather Power reduces your total burn cost of a blast, and so does Infusion Specialization. You want to plan around a combination of infusions and either empower or maximize that gets you to a total cost of zero, and only go over it in dire or important situations. This means a kineticist optimized for combat is going to have at least one substance infusion he can use for when he's dealing single target damage, Kinetic Blade or Kinetic Whip, and probably at least one reliable AoE like Torrent. You can also lean on using empower or maximize if you're "short" on things to add to your blast. In fact, don't ever forget Empower is extra damage for a measly 1 burn. Otherwise, they're pretty good to be adding to "special" blasts you're taking positive burn on to down important foes.

There is also the idea of taking burn to maximize your damage via Elemental Overflow. It's one of the few sources of additional to-hit bonuses the class has, and to-hit bonus means damage in D20. In this case, if you really want to do this, you're simply going to race toward your "break point" defined by your level. At levels 6 through 10th, you're going to race to 3 burn. At 11th through 15th it's 5 burn, and after that it's seven.

Be careful, though. Your cap never goes up simply by virtue of leveling, and there's no feat you can take for extra burn. At 16th level, let's say you have a 20 in CON and a +6 CON item. That puts your burn cap at 11 points. It'll go to 13 assuming Elemental Overflow bonuses raise your burn cap via putting the +4 into CON, which I'm not entirely sure is the case. Nonetheless, racing to 7 isn't giving you a ton of wiggle room for spending it on utilities or emergency beefy blasts. It's your call, honestly. Racing to the Elemental Overflow cap is definitely something Fire kineticists will be doing a lot, but the others? I'd say it's up to your preference and the situation.


Part Five-B: Blasts


If you can, you should probably start with your element's energy blast, but it's okay to start with the physical one if you need that for pre-reqs or something. By level seven, you're going to (likely) have a physical blast, an energy blast, and at least one composite blast. Basically, the energy blast is for if you're not hitting well, if you're fighting something with a hilariously low touch-AC, or AoEs. You want to be using the higher damage blasts if you can, especially as soon as you've got a composite blast. You don't get the additional hitroll of an enhancement bonus at any time, but this is mitigated somewhat.

The fact is that most people usually hit with their first iterative attack. Hitroll is for hitting on the 2nd or 3rd attacks. That's why hitroll bonuses are your best source of damage. Kineticists load most or all of their damage into a single attack roll, so you'll be better off than if you needed to rely on full attack actions. As for Kinetic Blade? Well, a single attack does do less damage, but it's not THAT much less. Your lesser iterative attacks should be seen as a chance for bonus damage.

To sum up, you want to be using your composite blast as much as possible, but you may end up using your energy blast if you need the to-hit bonus, or if you're using an AoE infusion. Energy blasts always deal "Extra" damage on AoEs, which means it's the same damage as a composite for less burn. If you're using Kinetic Blade, though, two successful hits with a composite blast is more damage than three successful hits with a simple energy blast, so you only want to switch to it if you feel you have to. I can't make that judgment call for you.

Oh, and if you're a Fire or Aether Kineticist, the decision is pretty obvious. Aether's low damage "composite" blast is why I called it low damage earlier, and Fire has no reason to use its simple blast ever again after 7th, unless you really, super need the burn points for some sort of helpful infusion.


Part Six: Equipment


Boy is this section easy. Let's go over your must-take magical items.


Defensive Items. You have the same defensive needs as a rogue does, meaning light armor with as much Max DEX as it can allow, or even Bracers of Armor as your DEX climbs. You want a cloak of resistance just like anyone else, and helpful AC items like Amulet of Natural Armor or Ring of Protection. Simple Stuff.

Belt of Physical Might. You only get one source of hitroll and one way to raise burn cap. You also don't need STR. Race toward a DEX/CON version of this item. It's your one important item. If you were on a desert island and could only take one thing, it should be your Belt of Physical Might. Like, not even a fucking boat.

Wish and/or Stat Books. See above. Soon as you're a rich high-level bastard, you want to be looking for these for DEX and CON.

Kineticist's Diadem. This thing is very expensive for not a whole lot of benefit, but it's your only source of bonus damage, so suck it up and buy one. Maybe wait a while until it's not such a huge purchase, though.

Magic Weapon. Fire, and maybe Aether Kineticists might want to invest in a magic weapon. I don't know what to tell you, other than a Fire Kineticist is going to end up in a fight against fire-immune enemies at least once. If your GM is careless and/or loves outsiders, it might even happen a lot. You want something around for this since you can't just swap to your other blast like the other Kineticists.

That's really it. You don't rely on items much. You can't benefit from a lot of them. Next I'm going to go over the few Kineticists specific weapons in the Occult Adventures book.

Overflowing Rod. This thing seems expensive for what it does, but I can't blame you if you want one, since there's very few sources of bonus damage Kineticist can take. I'm not a fan, though, since this is something you won't get until mid levels, then sell by the time you're level 18. If you get that far, anyway.

Vril Staff. You might think you want this, since a Kineticist can use it. It might even seem awesome for Fire Kineticists since they only get the one damage type. It's just too fucking expensive. It's so very not worth it that it's astonishing. Even if you actually got one in a treasure hoard, I'd seriously recommend selling it.

Hollow Rod. It can save you two points of burn. That'd be nice if it wasn't so fucking expensive. I guess if your game has a giant amount of cash and you can't think of what else to spend it on, this isn't bad. I mean, I guess it lets you bust the burn-per-turn cap. I can just think of a lot more stuff to do with 121k.


Part Seven: Final Thoughts.


So that's it. I'm sorry this doesn't include any of the stuff from the splats, but I'd be very surprised if any of it really shook up the class. I know I also didn't go over the other two elements, but I don't know them very well and they weren't designed with the same sort of perfection of the base class. I skimmed them, so here's a super quick first impressions.

Wood looks fine. Playable. Maybe this is the go-to if you want to throw into a dedicated healer kineticist. Is doing that worthwhile? I don't know, but I don't think so.

Void seems nice, but I don't know how useful pushing and pulling people around is really going to be, especially since none of this movement provokes AoOs.

And there we go. Otherwise, everything in the class has some sort of balance somewhere. If you're ever confused, you can sometimes clear it up by looking for that balance. It's not as complex a class as it seems at first glance.

This guide is already over-long, so I'm going to keep commentary on Kineticist's damage per round for later. My estimate is that you're going to be doing less than a fighter, but still respectable amounts of damage. Your damage on AoEs will likely be similar to a wizard or sorcerer properly built for it, maybe even a little more.

There's also a feat called Kinetic Invocation in Pathfinder Player Companion: Psychic Anthology. It's an okay feat to take on its own(it just expands your options), but the real gem is the idea that races with an elemental affinity(like Sylph or Oread) essentially get it for free for their affinity element. I think this is a pretty good idea, even if you don't own that book. Giving them an expanded list of things to take with utility wild talents is a great way to express a logical affinity for that element.


Part Secret Bonus Time: The TLDR Guide. 


I don't know how you got this far if fast advice is all you wanted, but here we go.


Play a DEX race. Not anything with a CON penalty.

Take Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Weapon Finesse.

Take Kinetic Blade. Use it for Single Target DPS.

Aether for Utility, Fire for Damage, Air or Water to split the difference.

You're gonna love that fire damage but you're gonna regret taking Fire at least one time.

Stack as much DEX and CON as you can.

Hit your burn soft cap from Elemental Overflow. Afterward, carefully manage your burn costs, or don't and go fucking bonkers every fight, see if I care.

Backend Research, Racial Stat Adjusts II

First off, Dean was curious about the totals of all the stat adjusts in the game, so he added them all together. I think it's super interesting, but I can't really tell you what it means. I just thought it was neat. It makes the game's love affair with DEX a little more obvious.

While I don't think the game's races being so whack-ass out of proportion is a huge problem, really he should have gotten values a lot closer than this. Within say ten or twelve of each other. Certainly, nothing should be negative, since that implies a lack of bonuses to that stat, an overuse of penalties to that stat, or(the actual answer) both.





I know why this is, in part. In earlier editions, (1e and 2e in particular) STR was the damage stat. Period. Things like Weapon Finesse, Finesse Training, or Slashing Grace didn't exist. 18 STR even had a percentile to it for no fucking reason other than to differentiate between people with 18s, since it was the most likely stat for a human fighter to have in STR. The game valued STR higher and was right to.

And I know why CON is overvalued. First off, they lean on the "thin but fast" stereotype by giving a DEX bonus and a CON penalty pretty often. Six out of the nine CON penalty races have a DEX bonus. The remaining ones, Samsaran, Astomoi and Changeling, all have double mental bonuses. Yet another stereotype. CON is also near universally valued in the game, with even the classes who don't need it as much(Ranged or caster types except for Kineticist) still benefit from it nicely. So while I can see their reasoning a bit, I don't agree with the outcome.

A lack of INT bonuses is because of wizards and the idea that they're powerful casters. Probably. Even though what individual stats are worth has proliferated thanks to all these base classes.  Really, that idea is why I'm irked by all this. Stats mean so much more now than even 3.5, and certainly more than 2e. Charisma is the caster stat for more than one class, it's not worthless like it was in 1e and 2e. Wisdom is more than clerics, and STR isn't necessarily more valuable than DEX thanks to Swashbuckler, Unchained Rogue, or Slashing Grace. It's more than past time for things to be closer.

I mean, I'm probably overthinking this. Races were probably put together by like two dozen people and they gave them a decent amount of creative control. It probably just worked out like this. Sephiroth and his max DEX build is the coolest and everyone wants a 20ft long Katana and bishie hair. Fine.

But I thought I'd do a little bit more research. I like putting races together. There's rigorous enough rules for it. I could patch some holes in the system's races. I could turn the few races I intended to make into a homebrew supplement. Those are still cringey and awful most of the time but mine will totally be different for reasons I can't think of right now.

Anyway here's the part where I put together what bonus combinations exist in the world and which don't. I'm not going through penalties just yet, since that's a bit too many combinations.  I'm also not counting Merfolk since they're extremely problematic, as opposed to races like Astomoi, Gillman and Deep One Hybrid being regular problematic.

STR/DEX: No.
STR/CON: No.
STR/INT: No.
STR/WIS: Yes. Oread, and Orang-Pendak
STR/CHA: Yes. Nagaji, Suli and Reptoid

DEX/CON: Yes. Caligni and Hobgoblin
DEX/INT: Yes. Elf, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tiefling, Wayang, Android
DEX/WIS: Yes. Tengu, Grippli, Svirfneblin, Vanara
DEX/CHA: Yes. a fuckton

CON/INT: No.
CON/WIS: Yes, Dwarf, Duregar, Deep One Hybrid
CON/CHA:  Yes, Gnome, Gillman, Ghoran, Shabti

INT/WIS: Yes, Samsaran, Astomoi
INT/CHA: No.

WIS/CHA: Yes, Changeling, Aasimar

So this was kind of interesting. Most of our holes are in STR, which is to be expected. We already know there's a huge lack of STR bonus races. I didn't expect there to be zero INT/CHA races, though, and I didn't expect so many combinations to just be two or three races. Really, this means that so long as you're not creating a DEX bonus race, anything added to the system is going to be welcome. Hell, even doing a DEX/CON race wouldn't be so bad.

Next I'm going over a few more vague concepts that I think bear mentioning.

no-penalty races: Hobgoblin, Aasimar, Shabti

+4 Races: Orc, Goblin, Monkey Goblin

Small Races: Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, Kobold, Ratfolk, Grippli, Wayang, Orang-Pendak, Monkey Goblin.

I didn't include it, since I already knew, but we also have no races who just have nice stats and that's basically all they get. Usually, when someone wants this style of character, they end up playing a monster. I think something should be available for them at base. Moving on, it should be noted that while all three "+4" races pay for their bonus in some way, the trade-off is somewhat disproportionate...and none of the no-penalty races significantly "pay" for their lack of a stat penalty, even though they have pretty high stat efficiency. They end up with more total stat points. Hell, Orc is a net -2. Keep in mind I'm talking about how they're designed and not their point values in terms of the race builder. For some reason the game sees it fit to put severely substandard(and low point value) races like Kobold or Halfling right next to very(and obviously) superior races like Aasimar, Goblin, or Skinwalker. Que Sera Sera, I guess.

And for the record, while I'm (nearly always) going to try to keep between 12 and 15 points, point value isn't everything. I don't think anyone would argue that Human is one of the game's better races, and their total value is just 9...identical to Halfling, which I've repeatedly called an under-performing race. Point value can be a good metric...but it ain't everything, I guess.

I'm pretty cavalier about stat spread, for a good reason. Like I said before, getting a +2 in your class's most important stat is really all you need, and getting a +2 in both of them is icing. Some classes need two stats(in addition to CON), and those classes are frequently behind anyway, doubly so in Poverty games which love low stat values. Pretty much nobody "needs" three or more classes unless they're putting together a weird multiclass. If they're putting together an oddball multiclass, chances are it's for flavor and giving them a leg up is not only not the end of the world, but maybe even something they could use. The days of exploiting via multiclassing aren't entirely over, but neither are they something you need to worry that much about.

So what does this mean? Well again since this was just all research and thought collecting, I'm absolved of my requirement to make an actual point anywhere in this post. It does mean some guidance in what I'm going to adapt or create in the future, though. Some races with interesting ideas or less conformity are definitely in order. Some monstrous humanoids(though, the race guide does give some classic non-monsters), some races more focused on stats, definitely some beefy bois with STR or CON bonuses. Some races who are focused toward stat boosts...or hell, maybe a race or two that's the opposite. The game sort of already does that with Strix, who lack a second stat bonus, but get the game's best flight speed ever given to a base race: 60ft(Average). Strix isn't a bad race, and frankly more of this would be welcome too.

I guess I'm gonna be writing a race supplement. I wonder how many other people started a homebrew supplement like this.

Backend Research: Racial Stat Adjusts

This isn't really a post. I just figured that, if I was going to do research and make lists of things, I might as well share it with everyone. I was making this list regardless. I'm making a list of Pathfinder's races and their stat adjusts. I'm doing this mostly out of curiosity, but also because I don't really like the list on PFSRD.COM. It's got everything that's ever been added lumped onto it, and the formatting stinks.

For clarity's sake, this lists playable races with no CR from the Advanced Race Guide as well as Bestiary 5 and 6. I feel these are the races 90% of players are going to use.  I haven't included the "example" races from the back of ARG, or the racial variants of Tiefling and Aasimar from whatever setting book those are in. I think they're neat, though.

Dwarf	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Elf	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CON
Gnome	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 STR	Small
Half-Elf	+2 CHOICE
Half-Orc	+2 CHOICE
Halfling	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR	Small
Human	+2 CHOICE

Aasimar	+2 WIS	+2 CHA
Catfolk	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Dhampir	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Drow	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Fetchling	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Goblin	+4 DEX		-2 STR	-2 CHA	Small
Hobgoblin	+2 DEX	+2 CON
Ifrit	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Kobold	+2 DEX		-4 STR	-2 CON	Small
Orc	+4 STR		-2 INT	-2 WIS	-2 CHA
Oread	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Ratfolk	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 STR	Small
Sylph	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CON
Tengu	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 CON
Tiefling	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CHA
Undine	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR

Changeling	+2 WIS	+2 CHA	-2 CON
Duergar	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Gillman	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 WIS	Water Dependent
Grippli	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR	Small
Kitsune	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR
Merfolk	+2 DEX	+2 CON	+2 CHA	Legless
Nagaji	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 INT
Samsaran	+2 INT	+2 WIS	-2 CON
Strix	+2 DEX		-2 CHA
Suli	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 INT
Svirfneblin	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 STR	-4 CHA	Small
Vanara	+2 DEX	+2 WIS	-2 CHA
Vishyanka	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 WIS
Wayang	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 WIS	Small

Android	+2 DEX	+2 INT	-2 CHA
Astomoi	+2 INT	+2 WIS	-2 CON	Telepathic Senses
Caligni	+2 DEX	+2 CON	-2 INT
Deep One Hybrid	+2 CON	+2 WIS	-2 DEX	Sea Longing
Ghoran	+2 CON	+2 CHA	-2 INT	Plant
Orang-Pendak	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 INT	Small
Reptoid	+2 STR	+2 CHA	-2 DEX
Shabti	+2 CON	+2 CHA		Shattered Soul
Skinwalker	+2 PH. CHOICE	+2 WIS	-2 INT

Goblin, Monkey	+4 DEX	-2 WIS	-2 CHA	Small
Naiad	+2 DEX	+2 CHA	-2 STR
Rougarou	+2 STR	+2 WIS	-2 INT

Total: 49 Races

STR Races: Orc, Oread, Nagaji, Suli, Orang-Pendak, Reptoid, Rougarou

Total: 7

DEX Races: Elf, Halfling, Catfolk, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Ifrit, Kobold, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tengu, Tiefling, Undine, Grippli, Kitsune, Merfolk, Strix, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Vishyanka, Wayang, Android, Caligni, Monkey Goblin, Naiad

Total: 27

CON races: Dwarf, Gnome, Hobgoblin, Duergar, Gillman, Merfolk, Caligni, Deep One Hybrid, Choran, Shabti

Total: 10

INT races: Elf, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tiefling, Samsaran, Wayang, Android, Astomoi

Total: 8

WIS races: Dwarf, Aasimar, Oread, Tengu, Undine, Duregar, Grippli, Samsaran, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Astomoi, Deep One Hybrid, Orang-Pendak, Skinwalker, Rougarou

Total: 15

CHA Races: Gnome, Halfling, Aasimar, Catfolk, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Ifrit, Changeling, Gillman, Kitsune, Merfolk, Nagaji, Suli, Vishyanka, Ghoran, Reptoid, Shabti

Total: 18

First section, distribution of bonuses. What did we learn? Well, we learned the Pathfinder race list is pretty unbalanced. This is honestly the biggest argument for letting people generate custom races that I've ever seen. Even allowing for the fact that some of the game's races aren't on this list, being printed in a splat or something, there's some staggering facts. Around 56% of the game's races have a bonus to DEX. There are ten DEX/CHA races. That's more than the number of races that get STR, INT, and almost CON. 

There are a load of different combinations that go completely unrepresented, but that's to be expected. Pathfinder has a soft "rule" that they don't often double up on mental or physical bonuses. In fact, Hobgoblin, Samsaran, Caligni, and Merfolk are the only ones that do that. 

Playing a race with a bonus to only one of your class's prime requisites isn't the end of the world. The game has enough wiggle room that it's okay you're not a hundred percent optimized. Even taking a funky combination with no bonus to your prime requisite isn't so bad. However, if we're purely talking about optimization, some classes fare better than others here. Kineticist wants DEX and CON, so it only has two racial choices: Caligni and Hobgoblin. Monk has Oread or Undine, depending on how you're building. Paladin, who wants STR and CHA, gets to choose from Nagaji, Suli or...yikes. Reptoid. Listen, there's nothing wrong with playing a Reptoid paladin. Not technically, anyway. It's gonna be some doing before that makes sense, though. But hey, look on the bright side: Swashbuckler wants DEX and CHA. Go fuckin' wild. 

It also means STR and DEX classes have a slight leg up over others due to Orc and Goblin and their +4s. At least it's a total classic to see Orc Barbarians and Goblin Rogues. They pay for their +4s as well, so. If your favorite thing to do is specialize, earmark those two races. 

No Penalty Races: Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Human, Aasimar, Hobgoblin, Shabti

Total: 6

Races with serious drawbacks: Gillman, Merfolk, Astomoi, Deep One Hybrid, Shabti
Total: 5

STR Penalty Races: Gnome, Halfling, Goblin, Kobold, Ratfolk, Undine, Grippli, Kitsune, Svirfneblin, Naiad

Total: 10

DEX Penalty Races: Deep One Hybrid, Reptoid

Total: 2

CON Penalty Races: Elf, Dhampir, Drow, Kobold, Sylph, Tengu, Changeling, Samsaran, Astomoi

Total: 9

INT Penalty Races: Orc, Nagaji, Suli, Caligni, Ghoran, Skinwalker, Rougarou

Total: 7

WIS Penalty Races: Catfolk, Fetchling, Ifrit, Orc, Gillman, Vishyanka, Wayang
Total: 7

CHA Penalty Races: Dwarf, Goblin, Orc, Oread, Tiefling, Strix, Svirfneblin, Vanara, Android, Monkey Goblin
Total: 10

Something you want to tell us about DEX, Pathfinder? Twenty Seven races with a DEX bonus and only two with a penalty? Otherwise, this is somewhat fairly distributed. Small races tend to get a STR penalty, though Monkey Goblin and Orang-Pendak escape it. The obsession with CON and CHA penalties I perceived Paizo to have is mitigated a little by realizing they're only slightly ahead of INT and WIS.

Eleven races deserve special mention, though. We'll go with the nice ones first. Six races have no stat penalty. Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Human are also the three "+2 to any stat" races. It's important to note that they're exactly as efficient in terms of total stat points as the basic "+2, +2, -2" races and all three are gonna be a good choice for nearly any class. Such is the power of Human blood.

Three are ahead in terms of total stat points: Aasimar, Hobgoblin, and Shabti. Hobgoblin and Shabti's bonuses are extremely easy to apply to a character since everyone can use CON, but Aasimar lags a slight bit behind due to not a whole lot of classes wanting both WIS and CHA. Shabti also kind of pays for its efficiency with a drawback(see below). This technically means Hobgoblin is one of the better races in the game, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Ranged characters(the sort that like DEX a lot) often have less of a need for CON since they're taking melee strikes less often. This means Hobgoblin, while still pretty good, looks its best on paper.

There's also five races that have problems. I hate saying this, but how playable they are really depends on your GM. That's not an insult: I've had excellent GMs that were simply not very permissive, couldn't work around a potentially debilitating disadvantage, or even had too much of a problem with the social aspect of a race(more on that below).

Three of the races, Gillman, Merfolk, and the Deep One Hybrid are "Aquatic" races. This means they're in that age-old category of being either amazing or bordering on unplayable depending on your campaign. Seafaring games are bound to see half or more of the party playing these types or others that can reach water breathing like Undine. I've never run a seafaring game, so that sounds just...natural to me. Like, it's not a problem, it's just how those games go. In a land focused game, they range from problematic(Gillman can always make sure he casts create water) to unplayable. Some GMs would struggle to keep all of a game's action on or around the coast so the Deep One doesn't start taking Wisdom Drain, and the Merfolk? He ain't got no legs. I really, super want to play a merfolk people push around in a wheelchair some day, but I don't think anyone's going to go for that.

Astomoi can only see and hear within sixty feet. I see this as a serious drawback, and they don't get anything in exchange for it. If you're okay with this, then go right ahead, but to me, this puts them in a non-use category. Shabti depends pretty heavily on how your GM interprets a specific rule. Namely, when during the casting of a spell you pay your material components. I've discussed it with several GMs and none of us really had a consensus. If your GM feels you pay regardless of whether the spell fizzles or not, then Shabti probably isn't playable. Nobody is going to blow for even a raise dead several times, and even if they do, the lost gold for it is both irritating and problematic. Even if the GM is callous and thinks the group being "down" a huge amount of gold is a valid drawback for playing a Shabti, it will cause balance problems for him later...which may cause you to die more...which may cause even more gold sink problems. You seeing a pattern here?

If your GM interprets the rule as a spell only consuming its material component if it's successfully cast(this is how I feel) then Shabti are fairly playable. Shattered Soul will probably come up, but it won't be a massive sink: Only a few hundred gold if the group is paying for the cast, or a few days of downtime if they've got their own cleric.

And finally, some races are gonna be more or less playable depending on your GM, their setting, and how they interpret their setting. This just can't be helped. Some GMs see goblinoids as people, though frequently antagonistic people.Some see goblins as the human equivalent of vermin: Omnipresent and living off the backs of society, in their filth or through theft. Other GMs, or even other settings see them as dangerous monsters which are killed on sight regardless of circumstance. While I personally dislike the second interpretation pretty strongly, both of these are valid. There's nothing we can really do if your GM wants to run a game in Middle Earth. You...probably just can't play an Orc there. This is an unfortunate X-factor to choosing race.

Thanks for coming along with me for my research. I'm sorry this isn't as meaty a topic as we normally do, but it might help us in the future. If nothing else, it's something we can load up when we're building characters for a quick reference to all of the game's main book races.