Meme Builds: The Shape

"I-I-I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring at a wall; not seeing the wall, looking past the wall, looking at this night...inhumanly patient, waiting for some secret, silent alarm to trigger him off. Death has come to your little town, Sheriff. Now, you can either ignore it, or you can help me stop it."



I was building an NPC, so I was looking at rogue archetypes. Here's a dirty secret: For as much as I like rogue, I tend not to bother with most of its archetypes. Back in the original, non-unchained rogue days they had very little you could trade out for other class abilities, and 90% of the archetypes that popped up would trade Trapfinding and Trap Sense for something minor, and that's it. I got to skipping them, I found them boring.

Then I found Rake. It's in a well respected hardcover book, it's mechanically effective, and it's a ton of fun. It was like Christmas. Within a few minutes of finding it I had a build in mind, and I thought...I might as well share. Rake is described as boastful, roguish and charming. Michael Meyers is none of those things...but let's use Rake to build him anyway.


The Shape
Class: Unchained Rogue
Archetype: Rake

Feats
1
2b Weapon Focus(Dagger)
3 Dazzling Display
5
7
9 Shatter Defenses
11 Quiet Death
13
15
17
19

Rogue Talents
2 Weapon Training
4
6
8
10 Opportunist
12
14
16
18
20

First off, having the skill unlock for Intimidate is necessary to this build. If you're playing an Unchained Rogue, you'll be taking that as your first Rogue's Edge unlock. You can also take the Signature Skill feat, but either way: Make sure you have it by level five.

The idea behind this build is easy. You pop up out of nowhere, stab them, and horrify someone into a coma with Intimidate's skill unlock. Bravado's Blade lets you trade up to your entire sneak attack bonus into an Intimidate roll, which can easily net you the "over ten" panicked condition bonus of the intimidate skill unlock. This sends them screaming away from you. Sure, it'll alert everyone around you, but that can be to your advantage. You can move people around who would otherwise be stationary, or pick off more people as they split up to look for you. They might even leave something unguarded. In addition: some people may come back after their panicked condition is over...but they might not, too. This could potentially buy you a lot of time to work.

The beauty of this is that while it's an ambush build...you can do all this shit in combat too. You can reliably crowd control people by trading your damage out, and because it's a free action? You can do it on any applicable Attacks of Opportunity as well. That's why I listed Opportunist as a required portion of this build. People running in a blind panic also makes them provoke AoOs. Handy.


Pros. Crowd control is huge. This is also not really a very heavy build: You have a ton of room for other things. You can easily turn this into a combat rogue, or even multiclass. It's easy to fit into millions of different play styles or character types. This build borders on just being an amazing trick you can work into other, pre-existing builds.


Cons. Infiltrating by scaring people can be really hairy and unpredictable. It's a powerful tool, but you need to be able to think on your feet and react to situations accordingly. Alerting everyone that an enemy is among them can sometimes be to your benefit...but sometimes it's not. People will be looking for you, so a high stealth check is a must. If you can find a way to get Hide in Plain Sight, it will be extremely useful. People running around like chickens with their heads cut off will reduce your number of viable hiding places. In addition to those concerns, some things are just plain immune to fear.

Oh, and you gave up Trapfinding and Danger Sense. If your party was looking for a typical "Pick the Locks, Disarm the Traps" Rogue...you'll do okay, but you'll eventually have some bad news for them... around the time you find your first magical trap.


Finishing the Character. There are so many places to take this build that our Christmas Morning theme continues. You can stack this build with anything that gives swift intimidates, since Bravado's Blade is a free fucking action. That means you could use the boar style tree(though you may have to multiclass for all those feats) or the borderline overpowered Enforcer to get additional(albeit smaller bonus) chances in a round. Demoralize doesn't stack, but it's handy if you're up against someone who's hard to demoralize, or you'd rather keep your damage up by not trading everything out. Gory Finish can let you pop up, kill a weak enemy, and set up a whole room of people as demoralized... very thematic, but also handy to start a combat with. Building a grappler and taking the feat Strangler would let you hold someone in place while they're flipping out screaming at you. I don't know how effective that would be, but it's certainly a hilarious mental image. You could also fill out the utility of Intimidate with Nerve-Wracking Negotiator or even just taking skill focus. Any skill bonus you can get over the "reliable" level of Intimidate can just add damage back into your strikes.

Rogue can take intimidating prowess as a talent to free up feat choices, but it also has a ton of complementary talents. Fast Getaway or Major Magic in Invisibility can help you completely disappear after an ambush. If you're confident enough that you're not trading out every single die of sneak attack, Bleeding Attack will help you tick away at their HP while they're running from you.

I want to give a special section to discussing a particular feat, Dastardly Finish. It lets you coup de grace cowering opponents, which is a condition you can cause once you have 15 ranks of Intimidate. Here's the thing, though: anything with a limited duration ends at the beginning of the initiative count they were caused. So, someone who you caused to cower on your action wouldn't be cowering for your next action. You could use this feat on someone you demoralized via an AoO, but in general, this feat is a great one for your friends to take, not you.


For Full Memery. Dress up like an actual fucking horror movie slasher. A mask is a must. Build a reputation. Straight up gruesomely murder people who deserve it. Leave calling cards. Use a Hat of Disguise to rapidly switch to your killer persona. Better yet: Dress like your killer persona, and use a Hat of Disguise to pass for normal.


If You Hate Fun. For once, there's not much to put here. It's not a meme-heavy build in the way that someone's going to notice or think it's silly if you don't want them to. You can play the boastful rogue in the way Rake recommends, or a cowboy-esque brawler who relies on overawe and reputation to get things done. In addition: You don't have to use daggers. You can use any finesse melee weapon for your Weapon Focus.

Stupid Magic Items III

I told you I'd never run out of these. While I'm removing the "In defense of the magic shop" descriptor as this goes forward, never forget that I do this to illustrate that giving players freedom to come up with their own magic items, or even just buying things off the shelf, is preferable to constantly getting random loot.


Lesser Poisoner's Jacket. Sometimes things look good because they fit a role well. Sometimes they look great because you don't see the need to do the math on it. You trust the designer to make sure the item is 'worth it' to buy. Fortunately for all of you, I like math. So, first off, you're going to be getting this item between levels 7 and 8, if you want it. It'd be a significant magic item in that range. Second, it costs 12,000 gold and lets you 'create' a 300gp(or less) poison three times a day. It sounds great, like I said. Well, the first problem is that you need to use this jacket 40 times before it was worthwhile to buy it over just buying the poisons outright. If you use all three of them in one combat(Likely, and even probable), that's fourteen encounters. That's not great, but none of it is a dealbreaker, exactly.

Your best options for poison are going to be Blood Leaf Residue(DC 16 contact poison for HP and CON damage), Giant Wasp Poison(DC 18 for DEX damage), and Large Scorpion Venom(DC 17 for STR damage). You can't actually make a decent poison that's going to directly help you kill someone, but that's okay. Debuffs can sometimes win you a fight.

Hopefully you see where I'm going with this. At level 8, someone with a "bad" fort save will have a +4 or so. Someone with a "good" fort save will have anywhere from a +8 to a +10. Monsters virtually never have a "bad" fortitude save, and their numbers at level 8 will ballpark around +12. So your significant expenditure item is netting you "free" poisons you have to use a ton of to get value from that will be obsolete even before you can reasonably get the item.

Oh, and the greater version is bad too. Repeat everything I said, and also there simply aren't very many decent poisons in the 2k-4k gold range that you'd be excited to use.


Volatile Vaporizer. I was gonna let this whole "stupid magic items" thing slide. I was. There's a lot of shit to talk about and I felt I made my point. Then I saw this abomination while gearing up a character and I got real mad. This thousand gold consumable item turns a potion into a 10ft radius cloud which affects everyone in it. It's an item which is consumable that costs a thousand gold or more that you use on a 50gp potion so it can affect multiple people.

Let's assume you need more convincing. For this item to be worthwhile, you'd need to fit twenty people in this 10ft radius. You can fit 12, if they're not ratfolk. Even then, they'd have to all be busy(unable to just drink a potion on their own) and all benefit from the potion for this to be worthwhile.

So this is the perfect item for your party of 24 ratfolk who all pack as tight as possible in a 10ft radius, who all have ranged attacks and all benefit universally from a cure light wounds potion that cost a thousand fucking gold. Great, we found a use.


Book of Extended Summoning. So this is where someone tries to make the argument that you're not "supposed to" buy everything in the book, and their value comes from finding them in a treasure hoard. My counter-argument is that finding something like this begs to be sold, and if it can't? It feels like being cheated out of loot.

This is a book which functions as a Metamagic Rod of Extend, but only for summoning spells, only of a particular alignment, and it crumbles when used. A Lesser Rod of Extend is 3,000 gold. The lesser book is a whopping 750 gold. Yes, that means Rod makes its money back in a mere four uses. In a busy dungeon, that might be two fucking days. Easily. The Standard and Greater versions fare similarly, losing value after four-ish uses. If it would be completely ludicrous to buy an item, it shouldn't be on the random loot table either. Whoever decided this item's cost has their head up their ass.


Cautionary Creance. This is a 100ft leash which only functions when you attach it to a flying animal companion or familiar. The leash then attaches to the master's arm, giving him a -1 penalty on skill checks and attack rolls with that arm. So you give up the significant range advantage of a flying companion by leashing them and take a minor attack penalty in exchange for...feather fall at will. They're...they're explicitly a flying creature, how often do you think you're going to need to cast feather fall on them? Other than that, once per day it lets you use Share Touch Spells at a range. So if you desperately need to buff your hawk once a day and don't mind carrying a ludicrous one hundred feet of leather strap around all the time, I guess this is your item.


Dust of Acid Consumption. This dust will absorb up to ten gallons of acid and turn it into a minor consumable acid attack item. It costs 1,600 gold. The lengths that you'd have to go to, just to render this item legitimately useful, are staggering. There's other ways to get rid of acid. Depending on the acid, buckets work. Those are five silver. A guy casting Protection from Elements probably works too. He's probably in your party. Just give him the two grand.


Efreeti Bottle. It's a 145 thousand gold item which you have a 10 percent chance of losing forever because he attacks you, or a 10 percent chance of losing forever because he granted you three wishes, which cost a little over half the price of this item. Great use of your gold. Again, I'm weighing this against selling the item. You could sell this and have most of the gold toward just buying three wishes.

Dumb and Wrong: D20, III

You might be wondering if this means I'm not done with Mecha and Manga. No, apparently, I'm not: it has a thing or two on this list. The density of 'wrong' in that supplement is fucking staggering.



Benefit: Normal Appearance. "Benefit" is a catch-all category of feats that provide a small benefit such as being an actual police officer, having ties to the mafia, or even having a friend you can call who has a teleporter... or a taco truck. It's for things that will be useful but can't really be quantified by numbers.

One of the suggested benefits in Mecha and Manga is the ability to "buy off" a drawback associated with your character's physical appearance or race. A "Drawback" is a numeric penalty or drawback like the Hulk's involuntary transformation or a weakness to a particular substance, like Kryptonite. You take them voluntarily so...if...you don't want a drawback, you just... don't take one. If it's late in the game, you pay off the point(s) and you erase it. That's how Mutants and Masterminds is. Changes have to be justified in the game, but after that? You're done, re-arrange your points.

This makes me so mad. What kind of rinky-dink bullshit is this where we have to catalogue this whole process by writing down our drawback then writing "Benefit: Bought off" next to it? Why include mandatory archetypes if you're going to let people skirt the drawbacks in them? This is exactly the dumb shit I was worried about when I mentioned the racial archetypes earlier in the book. It's unhelpful and wrong. Speaking of wrong...


Benefit: Standard Features. Artificial heroes can have five points of equipment per rank installed in themselves "As part of their species racial template". I mean, you guys don't need me for this one, right? Can you think of a reason this doesn't gel with the rules? The whole point of equipment is that they're locked down, minor point value powers that are balanced by the fact that you can lose them. You can't exactly lose something that's installed, can you?

The Features powers exists for this purpose. Once again, Mecha and Manga pointlessly re-invents the wheel.


"Golden Age" Benefits. I probably don't have a lot to say about the M&M Golden Age supplement, so let's place this here. It's a book on how to run a Golden Age comics era game, the sort of comics you saw in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Apparently, an enormous part of this book focuses on WWII, like there's nothing else to that era. Regardless, the Golden Age had a higher percentage of heroes who were "normal" people than today. It was a much more "down to Earth" time. Before we go any further, I just want to say M&M isn't very good at expressing the "Normal" side of heroing. If you wanted to run a Watchmen style game, you could absolutely do that: But you're not flexing the system very well. There's a lot that the system intentionally glosses over for that hero feel, and "low power hero" games might even be better in say, D20 Modern, Spycraft, or Gurps. Basically, what I'm saying is this book is already kind of on my shit list for being a bad idea.

That said.

Golden Age didn't seem to get the memo and includes a lot, a LOT of information and rules that I can't imagine coming up. There's a benefit(with several ranks!) to be exempt from the draft. I mean, you get why this isn't okay, right? How is this not just flatly a part of your game's plot? What the fuck are you going to do, leave the guy out of the military adventures? Take away someone's PC and tell them "They got drafted, make a new PC"? If they're doing all of the adventures together anyway whether they've been drafted or not, what exactly do I get out of spending points on this? There's even a huge amount of pontificating on what "level" of exempt you are and what social stigmas you face for it. It honestly feels like it's written with no research and just reflects basic pop culture ideas of the forties and fifties. This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a supplement. This definitely replaces that 3.0 D&D feat that gave you minor benefits vs. hippos as the stupidest feat ever created.

There's also a benefit to be exempt from rationing, giving you a +4 to any rolls on the "Rationing Table". I couldn't even find it! I have no idea what the fuck this does! Just take it and buy out the eggs and steak in your local supermarket, I guess. Fill up your big fucking death trap 40s car with gasoline and do donuts on main street.

A depressing amount of M&M's supplements have huge sections telling you how to play and build your character. In a system that's so free and agile...that sucks.


Pathfinder's Butterfly Knife. How the hell did I miss this one in my post about bad weapons? It provides literally no benefit over a basic dagger, can't be thrown, requires some nonsense to open it, and requires an exotic weapon proficiency to use. It's a Worse Dagger.

Where do I fucking begin?

Let's start of real simple. You can totally throw a balisong at someone. Like, it's not even harder than a traditional knife to throw. I even remember hearing something about throwing an unlocked butterfly knife at someone so it flails end-over-end in the air and stuns or confuses them.

This is what I mean by cool tax. This is a stock example I can point to, forever and until the end of time, of cool tax. It provides no benefit over a regular dagger and I'm floored that they couldn't think of anything to spice it up with. Even if you don't want to do that, what's wrong with this just being an expensive dagger, a modification? What's wrong with this being martial but with a small benefit? This is creatively bankrupt.


Chalk. I'm gonna let you in on a secret. I don't always check the physical copy when I'm writing stuff. It's extremely rare that the PFSRD website is wrong or misleading. Still, when someone I know showed the entry for chalk to me, I had to go look. Here, I super try to avoid doing this, but you need a direct quote. 

"This fat piece of white chalk easily marks wood, metal, or stone. You can write with it for about 24 hours before it is expended. Chalk also comes in other colors, but these are rarer and can be more expensive."

What a weird fucking way to express how much chalk you get. You can write with it for about twenty four hours? How in the world do they expect anyone to track that? You know, the entry for ink and inkpen don't even bother explaining how much writing you get out of it. Because it doesn't matter! Sometimes it's okay to abstract mundane gear. My brawler Icke had applejack whiskey and ink on him for the entire game. Was it the same bottles of either he started with? Probably not! It's probably his hundreth bottle of applejack and millionth inkwell. It's FINE. It's an extremely small amount of resource, even for a level one character. We can calm down.

And this entry also hits on a huge pet peeve of mine. An enormous one. Vague statements like "This is rarer and more expensive" can fuck off. It's ONE COPPER, just say it comes in a variety of colors! This is never going to come up! You're just baiting people into arguments. Arguments over chalk. Again, it's one copper, so if it's "more expensive" what is it, two fucking copper? This is the purest definition of minutiae I've ever seen.

And yeah, I'm completely aware that the person who wrote that probably didn't think about it and just needed to fill a few sentences. What do you say about chalk, anyway? It's chalk. Buy some chalk. Make little drawings on the dungeon walls, it's what we're all gonna use it for anyway.

Pathfinder Class Review: Occult Adventures and The Rest

Sorry for lack of updates. Mama raised a quitter. I'm trying to curb the habit.

Occult Adventures

Kineticist. The one class I wrote a guide on. See my next paragraph for why. Here in the 'class fantasy' paragraph, we already have plenty to talk about. I mean, you're an element bender. There's no way around this comparison, you watch Avatar: The Last Airbender? You think that show is super cool? This is your class. It's really neat to have a character around that interacts with magic without being a typical "Vancian" spellcaster. Without Kineticist, you can play an elementalist, sure...by picking a wizard, arcanist or sorcerer and leaning toward those spells. You'd be giving up a lot to never cast a spell that's not related to your element, though. It's just not the same thing.

Mechanically, I want to say before anything else that this is a pretty solid class. You end up feeling a bit fightery for having  relatively few, but decent options in combat. That said, this is one weirdly structured class. I have it on good authority that the designer is quite an intelligent man, a polymath from MIT...and I can see it in the design. I can. It's just a very 'It makes perfect sense to him' design. It's essentially a remake of Warlock from 3.5 D&D conceptually, but with more care put into it. I like this class, but I wouldn't recommend someone play it who was new or just wants to jump into a character. Your decisions are quite important.

Oh, and it's one of the few classes in the game that can be 'hard countered': Eventually, you're gonna run into someone who's immune to your chosen element. That's part of the decision process: You can either be extremely effective at one element, or have the variety to never deal with this situation. It's a situation no other class really puts you in. You can decide whether you like that or not on your own.


Medium. This is a spirit medium of the 'real' kind, not the charlatan kind...which this book also has in it. That's part of why I think Occult Adventures is the peak of Pathfinder. Anyway! I think this is a compelling concept for a class, someone who deals with spirits, and who channels them to gain powers. This is a huge roleplay opportunity, your chance to play a person who's wildly different in personality based on which spirit he's picking that day.

This is another class I referred to as support style several times: It has 3/4ths AB, some spells(though not as much as the other support style classes) and its key spirit-channeling ability which gives you a potentially huge amount of versatility. I think this is a solid class which can fill a lot of roles, but I do feel like you're going to end up favoring certain spirits based on what your group needs. Groups without much spellcasting are going to see the medium picking Archmage or Heirophant constantly. Et Cetera. Maybe that's a small problem. Their spell list also isn't the greatest at base, seemingly built to have a little of everything and suffering because of it. Still, you get some solid spells where it matters, as well as the ability to supplement that further with your spirit channeling.


Mesmerist. Sure, rogue can be a con artist. Bard can be a tricky spell-user. But neither fills the role of a charming, deceitful manipulator quite like Mesmerist does. Another support-style class, he gets a little of everything in the best way, feeling like an alternate take on Bard and a class you can take to fill that exact role with a much different play style and feeling.

You get extra damage via painful stare. You get no-save debuffs, you get 6+INT skills, 3/4ths AB and even spells. This is a great class. You also get Tricks, though, a compelling pseudo-spell ability where you can plant little contingencies in yourself and other people, and some of them are really powerful. Highlights include Mask Misery which can reduce duration of or even end debuffs or crowd control abilities, and Mesmeric Mirror, which can get you a mirror image spell as a swift action. It's a class that requires a little planning and foresight, but that's hardly a steep price to pay.


Occultist. I happen to like the idea of this class: a spooky, jack-of-all-trades researcher and practitioner of the occult. You can just play a Witch or something, but this class certainly feels different. Unique in this aspect. It's more than just playing a rogue or investigator and saying you wear black eyeliner and cart skulls around. Your capabilities back up your fantasy.

This class would definitely work fine if you wanted to play it. I honestly believe that. It disappoints me fairly bad, though. You don't really get anything that makes you truly want to play an Occultist over other classes, but on top of that you have to deal with its convoluted Mental Focus "Investment" system. Where Kineticist feels well designed but confusing, Occultist feels poorly designed and confusing. You invest points into your implements, which determines what bonuses you get that day and what you can spend on which powers. I can see where this might have been an interesting system at some point, but it's a hell of a lot to deal with for just...the same powers other classes get. It makes you want to play them instead to avoid the investment busywork.


Psychic. I do sort of hate that Pathfinder decided to turn psychic classes into more traditional classes, but I can't say I don't get why. Psychic manages to continue feeling alien and weird while being more easily understood than 3.0's power point toting classes while still being a unique full-time spellcaster. This is another class fantasy you can sort of do with other classes, but not really...and I'm glad for its existence.

You're a Sorcerer-style caster with a pool of points you can use to gain bonuses or special effects out of your spells. You also pick a discipline, which makes this class feel a bit like Oracle. The Spell List is okay. I hate dealing with these locked-in lists at the end of a class page: they always feel weirdly restrictive. It's not a bad selection, though, and the psychic spells can be quite powerful. I dunno, don't take my lack of wording to say this class is bad. The spell list is solid, and you're a full-time caster, so your fun and effectiveness ride on that selection of spells.


Spiritualist. This is the class for if you have a dead wife, near-crippling mental complex, or secret psychic friend like Fredbear. Sorry! Sorry. I just don't like this class's feeling very much. I don't feel it does enough that's different from Summoner in tone and feel. I mean, I guess your pet ghost feels way more like a ghost than summoner could manage, but it's often in ways you wouldn't really use or won't come up. It's also quite melancholy in nature in a way Medium isn't. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but every other class can be taken in multiple directions. Try as I might, I can't make "This is my pet ghost, but like...we're happy about this arrangement" work.

You get a worse spell list and a worse pet than Summoner. You get none of the abuseable abilities of Summoner's Eidolon and you don't get to hand-build your ghost friend. You're seriously married to your ghost friend's effectiveness, limiting your multiclassing options. I said there's no class that's unplayable and I mean that, but I really can't find much in this class to prove it. Some of the ghost types have some interesting abilities, which can prop them up a bit. That's about the nicest thing I can say. Sorry.

Ultimate Intrigue

Vigilante. You know how people say that you should always be yourself, unless you can be Batman? Well, Pathfinder's developers heard about that too. Now, let's put aside the ridiculous idea of playing a modern style of superhero, okay? Let's all take five minutes to imagine that cool Fantasy Avengers artwork...to picture Hulk in Shakespearian tights, to oogle all the obviously-inspired-by-comic-books abilities Vigilante gets and! Gone. Breathe out, and forget all about it for the duration of this discussion. Honestly, there's a lot of potential here. There's the obvious characters like the Scarlet Pimpernel, The Three Musketeers, or even Zorro. There's also the idea of secret cultists, cult leaders, Thieves' or Assassins guild elites...this class can easily fill a great niche in a Pathfinder game.

The idea is you get social abilities based on blending in or fooling others, then also a host of combat or skill abilities. You also get a costumed identity with a different alignment than yours, which makes for some interesting roleplay potential. The "social" abilities are okay, and only truly shine when you're able to stay in one place for most of the game. When you can't, they range from 'situational' to 'okay but neat'. It feels like most people will end up taking the disguise powers. That's fine, but disguise is one of those skills where you really have to work and be inventive to get use out of it. Getting additional capabilities surrounding it is, at least, helpful.

 You pick between Stalker and Avenger(I know, shut up) as a specialization: You're essentially picking Rogue or Fighter. Either decision seems okay, but there's a few things about Stalker which are notable. It gets D8 sneak attack, but only when the enemy is flat footed or thinks the vigilante is a friend. If you activate it via flanking? You only get D4s. That combined with lack of Debilitating Injury means Stalker is more reliant on its abilities and creating situations for its effectiveness. Not a deal-breaker, but certainly worth noting. As for Avenger? In addition to all the utility powers it can take as well as stalker, you get a 1:1 AB and the ability to just take bonus combat feats if you want those instead. You can also take Mad Rush, which is a pounce. There are worse deals.

Ultimate Wilderness

Shifter. So you want to play a shapeshifter, a wild-shaper without dealing with spellcasting. Without Shifter, that's impossible. With shifter, you can play a melee combatant, a D10 hit die, 1:1 AB beefy warrior type who gains their power from wildshape. I'd say that's pretty solid in terms of fantasy. Not even 3.X really had anything like this: It had a prestige class, but it hardly felt as sleek and well laid out as Shifter.

Okay so, we have to talk about that big old elephant in the room. This is the one class that might be unplayable. It received major updates via errata, and if your GM is a stickler and insists you can't use the new version? I'd skip this class. Without these updates, this is quite a hamstrung class. The thing is, you're intended to use natural attacks, and that means your 1:1 attack bonus is quite wasted, and your uses of wildshape are frankly piddly and too precious to "waste" on out-of-combat utility. The update fixes both of these problems.

Let's move on to what you can actually do. You get WIS to AC, which is handy as hell if you like being naked. You get claws of your own which naturally raise in bonus. You get wildshape measured in some hours per day, and the (extremely important) ability to make iterative attacks with your natural weapons. You also get Shifter Aspect, a potpourri of selectable personal bonuses. I'm always on the fence with stat-boost abilities that give enhancement bonuses: it means they're not compatible with magic equipment, which gives the same bonus type. Still, it can save you having to buy that item, and that's a valid play style. There are some nice bonuses aside from these inside the minor aspects you can stack on top of using wild shape for your "major" form too.


@}-,-'--


Well, that's it. I hope this helped someone, because it was a little demotivating to go through every single class and talk about it. Pathfinder sure has a lot of them. Still, I think I'll take that over prestige classes. No questions of identity, no fiddly requirements, and no wildly varied balance. As we saw, they're all fairly playable, and only a few of them stand out as being notably "bad". Even then, out of them (Spiritualist, Cavalier, and Gunslinger), only Spiritualist really has me pulling at my collar and sweating when someone mentions playing one. I know this is all based on my feelies since there's few sources of an objective "good" in terms of classes, but it's still closer than I expected.

Pathfinder Class Review: Advanced Class Guide and Ultimate Magic

"Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."

Advanced Class Guide

Arcanist. We're hitting the ground running with what's potentially Pathfinder's most problematic spellcaster. The intended fantasy of this class is supposed to be a spellcaster which seeks to meld study with blood-borne magic, but that honestly just comes off like a lazy reflection of its mechanics to me. That makes this one of the few classes in the game that genuinely just piggybacks off the fantasy of another. Its main draw is its spellcasting method: It casts like a sorcerer with Spells Known and Spells Per Day, but it memorizes those spells known each day. It also has Arcane Exploit, which is a pool of points you can use to achieve some neat tricks.

I'm guessing even the novices in the audience are thinking the way Arcanist casts spells sounds overpowered. Sorcerer still gets more spells per day and Wizard still gets more versatility and earlier spell levels, but...yeah, Arcanist has me a little nervous too. Their one downside is, unless you take an exploit for it, you're stuck being very specific with your metamagics. You have to fill a memorization slot with it, like one of your fourth level spells known that day being Intensified Fireball instead of being able to be flexible and cast it once or twice. It's a small downside, honestly. Most spellcasters have very little to spend their cash on except metamagic rods anyway. Well hey, at least the class looks like a lot of fun to play, right? As a staunch member of Team Sorcerer, this is the kind of compromise I like.


Bloodrager. He gets mad and he casts spells. Next class, please. No, honestly I promise I'll go into it further than that. Advanced Class Guide seeks to make new, interesting things by mashing two classes together and seeing what their babies look like. To be clear, I love the idea and I feel like nearly every class in this book is great. I'm lukewarm on Bloodrager, but I don't think it's the writer's fault. The very idea of "Barbarian, but spellcaster too actually" to me always felt born entirely from the fact that it's one of the few things in D20 fantasy gaming that definitely can't happen. Sometimes, you tell someone "no" to something and it makes them immediately want it. Still, this is a pretty good class which has a very unique feel compared to Barbarian, and I like that Magus is no longer the game's only Magic Action Man.

Mechanically, Bloodrager can pull of some decent tricks and has a big bag of cool stuff to pull from. Its spell list is small but filled with good buffs. He eventually gets the ability to cast a minor buff for free when he rages, which is great. The bloodlines are also filled with pretty good choices. The only gripe I have is that it still works like classic Barbarian, with +STR and +CON instead of +Attack/Damage and +HP. It's an easy as hell fix if your group agrees it's a problem, though.


Brawler. You ever go to a person's house and they obviously have a favorite kid? It's tragic how obvious some people are, right? Well, we're at that part of the guide. Brawler is the answer to an unarmed combatant that doesn't buy into the philosophy of being a monk, far more like a fighter. The wealth of concepts Brawler owns that don't really fit into monk is also immense. People who trained as an unarmed fighter out of necessity, or pride. People who actively reject philosophy. Wild, hard-drinking people who happily wade into bar fights. I love this class for its feel and also its mechanics, and for filling a role I've been dying to see filled since I started playing 3.0.

It can do some neat stuff like trading a bit of damage to use weapons in the Close category, but its key ability is Martial Flexibility, which gives you temporary access to combat feats. In the right hands, this is insanely useful and fun. It means never taking a "sometimes" feat...because something like Blind Fight will be available every time you need it, so long as you don't blow all your uses. If that's a bit too much planning for you, it even has an archetype called Snakebite Striker which trades it for some dice in sneak attack. You don't get the full rogue-like amount since you're a full AB character, but hey. It's damage on top of damage.


Hunter. So I've never really looked too closely at this class because it exists firmly inside the blast radius of ranger, a class I loathe. This is another class that essentially steals the fantasy of another, a thing I'm increasingly negative on as I do these reviews. It's ranger, with more spells, a better pet and more focus on utility than murder. It also casts from the Druid AND Ranger spell list, super handy. If you have a nature themed concept, you could do worse than Hunter.

It has decent spellcasting up to 6th level, a pet on the the level of a Druid, 6+INT skills, and a few other nice things. Animal Focus is a pretty decent ability. Its ability boosts are Enhancement bonuses, meaning they don't stack with gear, but using abilities like this can let you place your gold somewhere else. That can be very powerful. It also gets bonus teamwork feats. Here's the thing. I didn't even go into this when I talked about Inquisitor, another class that has a teamwork focus. Yes, they do work best when given a buddy(your animal companion) who can pair with you for free. Theoretically, this is a pretty neat, useful concept. In practice, not many of the teamwork feats are any good. Not only that, but you get the most useful one, Outflank, for free at level 2. I urge you to go check out the teamwork feat list to see what I'm saying. It doesn't detract that much from the class, but it bears mentioning.


Investigator. Another of the half-caster utility classes and potentially the best one. Investigators are detectives, trackers and other law-abiding concepts, but can also serve to express criminal masterminds, infiltrators, or any other roguelike concept that leans toward using their mind over their body. They get far less combat ability than Rogue, but in trade they get skill utilities and alchemist extracts. If you guessed I'm about to call it a great trade, you'd be right.

So obviously this class is a utility powerhouse, with rogue's only benefits over it being slightly more skill points and more combat focus. Investigator does get "Studied Strike", which is similar to sneak attack, but it's weird and conditional, and never gets a comparable amount of damage to sneak attack. Investigator talents are great, and even include some rogue talents. You can even take mutagen if you want some more combat ability. Inspiration bears mentioning too, though. You can pop it for a 1d6 bonus to skill rolls, and even get it for free on some checks. It's not always useful because the nature of skills is that raising the number past a certain point is sometimes wasteful. However, it can be a very powerful ability, especially if you take a talent that lets you expand your list of "free" inspiration skills.


Shaman. Shaman are those who consort with the spirits of the land to gain power and spells. It's different enough from Witch, I guess...but the class kind of isn't. They're a divine caster as opposed to Witch being technically Arcane. If that matters to you, I guess. Shaman's other parent class is Oracle, and while you can see its influence, Shaman clearly takes after Witch, including its custom spell list.

I dunno, guys. You get hexes, those are great. You get spirits, which are like choosing an Oracle Mystery, which gives you access to some custom hexes. Basically, you get to take some Witch hexes and some Oracle powers, which isn't a bad deal. You do get Evil Eye and Misfortune, but you don't get Cackle, so if you wanted a debuff specialist, Witch is still your huckleberry here. Shaman isn't bad. It looks fun. However, it exists entirely within Witch's shadow.

Edit: You get Chant, which is the same as Cackle. Shaman can still perform the "debuff specialist" slot fairly well.

Skald. He gets mad and he casts spells. Next class, please. No, sorry. This is a good concept, honestly. Scandinavian Skalds are an entirely different thing than the European Bard, and it's cool that we got something to express that. I don't have a problem with Bard's fantasy, and it is absolutely a very versatile class when you're talking about concepts, but a Skald is just different. It fills a fundamental hole in character lore that I like seeing filled: the hard bitten, fight-worn Viking lorekeeper. The hide-wearing barbarian leader, surviving by his wits but still existing on the front lines with his brothers and sisters.

Skald is fucking solid, mechanically. You fewer bard songs, but the ones you do get are awesome: Inspired Rage is a STR/CON buff with a few Rage Powers(!) added, Dirge of Doom is a no-save shaken condition, and their others are nice but conditionally useful. You get the awesome Bard spell list, and you get some personal defensive abilities like Uncanny Dodge and some DR. Spell Kenning bears mentioning too: Starting at 5th level, some few times a day you can just plain-ass cast any sorcerer/wizard, bard or cleric spell like it's on your Spells Known list. That makes for amazing utility.


Slayer. This is yet another class that steals another class's fantasy. I suppose a jungle stalker, an ultimate predator or sneaky Rambo style guerrilla is a different concept entirely from its parents Ranger and Rogue. Honestly, I'm a little suspect. If you turned Slayer in as a homework assignment, you wouldn't be getting an A from me. It's okay, though. It's not so bad that I dislike the class for it, and they can't all be home runs like Skald, Magus or Swashbuckler.

You get a full 1:1 Attack Bonus, you get decent skills and you get some things like Rogue Talents. I mean, what else do you want? That's already a lot. You do get some decent tracking utility, the slightly complex but useful Studied Target combat buff, and you can trade off your Slayer talents for ranger combat style feats. You can definitely see why I put Slayer into the "Utility Fighter" category, it gets a huge list of varied abilities.


Swashbuckler. This definitely became one of my favorite fighter-like classes. The Swashbuckler was an enormous hole in D20 gaming, with 3.X only having the Duelist Prestige Class(and you know how I feel about PrCs) and some dodgy, broken parrying feats from 3rd party books. It made it hard to play the roguish, charming fencer concept, and that felt like a major thing that was missing. Maybe we all just watched too much Princess Bride, but it feels like a staple of gaming. Until PF's Swashbuckler came along, playing a rogue and pretending had to suffice.

Swashbuckler is amazing, frankly. You get the ability to play a dexterity focused fighter and whether or not you decide to take Slashing Grace, your damage will be pretty good. Swashbuckler is a one-hand-and-shield concept that deals damage more comparable to a two handed fighter, and they get some tricks called Deeds in addition to that. Deeds let you blow a resource called Panache to either protect yourself via parry or pull off some neat stuff like targeted strike. The beauty of Panache is that it's a very limited resource(CHA bonus in points, that's it) but it "rolls" since you get it back when you confirm a critical hit or a killing blow. That way, you're managing it on a micro, per-fight level and not a per-day level. It's probably the most random number dependent class in the game because of this. I found, though, that even when I was Panache starved due to lack of critical hits, I was still having a blast playing Swashbuckler.


Warpriest. Hey, remember back during Cavalier that I called it a blatant bid to provide a separate-but-equal Paladin to those people who wanted a Paladin class for other alignments? Well, welcome to Warpriest. While not a bad class, its fantasy and roleplaying potential are deliberately identical to Paladin, with a thin veneer coloring it based on your alignment. I mean, I guess just providing new mechanics to old concepts is something. Maybe it's not that bad. It still leaves me cold, though.

Luckily, Warpriest's mechanics are pretty solid. You get the neat Sacred Weapon which can be used to get great damage out of silly weapons. You get decent spellcasting, all of the good buff spells, and Fervor, which allows you to cast personal buffs for free. You're more reliant on your abilities to deal good damage, but as I've seen firsthand, you can easily act as a full spellcaster when you need to. After that, you can then punch people in the face too.

Ultimate Magic

Magus. This is definitely a concept that's been missing from D20. I remember back in the days of 3.X stacking PrCs, clever spell selection and feats to make a fighting mage work. It was hard, but it was a concept we were fucking dying for: someone who weaved spells with physical combat. Thankfully, in Pathfinder it doesn't require the weird multiclassing and avant-garde feat selection 3.X did. Magus is here for you, and it can potentially let you blow everyone out of the fucking water.

You get the ability to do a full attack action with a one-handed weapon as well as casting a wizard spell. I can just stop right there, honestly. Even if you got nothing else, this would be a great class. But no, you get the ability to deliver touch attacks with your weapon, making even 1st level spells great for using with Spell Combat. You get Arcana, which can add an enormous amount of versatility to the class. It gets obvious things like Arcane Accuracy to facilitate dumping STR a bit, but it also has a few hidden gem arcana. Wand Wielder and Wand Mastery can ensure you never. Ever. run out of decent spells to supplement Spell Combat. Magus is frequently called overpowered, and while I don't agree, it's easy to see why.

Pathfinder Class Review: Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Combat

Just like last time, I'm going down the line and putting serious analysis into every class. This isn't in proper order, because I have to be mindful of how long I'm talking in one post, so books with few classes in them are getting plugged in randomly. Sorry!

Advanced Player's Guide

Alchemist. The first new base class added, and man did they set the bar high with this one. It's modeled after Bard in that it's a little bit of everything and fantastic utility, but it's turned inward: Alchemist buffs itself, not the group. It has some of the best personal buffs in the game(Mutagen), but also some fairly new, forward concepts. Bombs can be used for damage or utility, spell slots can be held to mix later on the fly, and Mutagen itself just needs an hour to brew one up: something you can end up doing multiple times a day. As for class fantasy? Maybe it's me but Alchemist is a gold mine of concepts added to the game, from mad scientists like Doctor Jekyll or hedge wizards mixing magic with "Science".

I told myself I wouldn't mention specific class archetypes here, but I really have to break that rule. Vivisectionist is an important choice to your character, adding melee damage in exchange for the utility of bombs. It's important to note that bombs can be made into very powerful spells with some discoveries, and this isn't a choice to be made lightly. Otherwise, Alchemist can built in a lot of directions just like bard, with the added benefit of a damage build being easier to approach thanks to Mutagen. Budgeting resources is a must for an Alchemist, but it's a small price to pay. It's also one of the few classes in the game that sort of has to choose what they want to be good at: bombs, melee damage, or spellcasting. And I wouldn't focus too much into spellcasting. It's one of my favorite classes, but it can be a little hard to build.


Cavalier. Hey, you want to hear a secret? I've kind of been dreading this one. I have so little to say. Cavalier is supposed to be a classic knight, sworn to a cause and powered by the conviction of their ideals. Now read all of that and add "But it's not paladin, so any alignment can take it" and you arrive at the first of Pathfinder's two attempts at compromising with the fairly large number of people who want Paladin's alignment restriction gone. This is kind of a can of worms, but suffice to say they feel the class can represent someone devoted strongly to any ideal or code of conduct and not just one specific one. Paizo doesn't agree so they publish Cavalier. Look! It's Paladin, but not as good! It brings nothing to the table except being kind of okay and letting you play any alignment.

Cavalier has some interesting mechanical concepts, such as sharing teamwork feats and its various orders. Don't get me wrong, it'll perform well enough. Maybe even great. I just don't see a reason for this class to truly exist outside of being a "Paladin Compromise".


Inquisitor. Now here's a great palette cleanser from that last one. The game sorely needed a divine utility class, and this is the first of several. Inquisitor is almost a diamond in the rough, I feel: I never see anyone play it, but it has the amazing fantasy of being a church inquisitor followed up with some really great class abilities. It used to be that your options for a divine character who wasn't a cleric was "Paladin", and I'm glad Inquisitor exists as a sort of "Divine Handyman" and church troubleshooter. You can make a character like that with other classes, of course...it just always felt a little flat to me.

In addition to the standard(amazing) list of cleric buff spells to shore up your 3/4ths AB, you've got Judgment, which is sort of your version of rage or Smite Evil, but with the twist that you pick your bonus and can change it every round. It's potentially one of the best personal buffs in the game, competing with Mutagen or Rage. You can pick something offensive until the exact second you need to defend yourself. You also get a simplified cleric's spell list distilled down to the most useful stuff, like Restoration, Dispel Magic, Break Enchantment, and the cure spells. All that and 6+INT skill points. Honestly, looking at all this put together, I'd be tempted to call Inquisitor OP...if I were the type of person to say that about any class, I mean.


Oracle. Want divine spells, but like Sorcerer? Really loved Favored Soul? Oracle is for you! PF jazzes up what could have been an overly simplistic idea. It's a staple, though, and I'm glad it exists. It's meant to evoke the feeling of the Greek Oracles, especially with its enforced disability "Curse" class ability. I think it's a novel idea, but more options would've been nice. The Oracle is one of the few times I've felt class fantasy was sitting on my shoulders and weighing me down instead of inspiring something cool.

There's not much to say about this class mechanically, though. Sorcerer-style spellcasting and selectable class abilities. Nothing wrong with it. Some fun stuff in there. Cleric gives up a little bit more than Wizard when switching to sorcerer casting, though: A lot of the use people see in Cleric is its ability to cure conditions, which certainly doesn't need to be done every day. Still, I think it's alright. I'm the closest thing to a Sorcerer champion you'll ever see, so Oracle can come hang out in my clubhouse too.


Summoner. Alright. Deep breath. Technically there's a lot to go over here having to do with how powerful Summoner can be, but let's try to scoot over that quickly. Pet class! You want a pet class, you got a pet class! There's another pet class now, but this was the first one! There's a ton of places you can take the fantasy of a pet class considering your pet can look like anything you want, so this is one of the more "free" and mutable classes in the game, concept-wise. Demon? Extremely Talented Gorilla? Personal Iron Golem? Dead wife? Floating Head? God Fetus? All valid concepts for your Eidolon, but let's maybe not do that last one.

Mechanically, it's such a monster that Unchained sought to nerf it. The summoner gets all kinds of buff spells they can cast while the eidolon can wade into combat. The number of actions you can take in a round, called Action Economy, is very important. Summoner has action economy in spades. It's got the summoner casting buff spells, but also it has the Eidolon wading into melee combat. On top of that, Eidolons can be built to take a scary amount of natural attacks which can translate to a ton of damage. I dunno, dude. I'm starting to see summoner as one of the "power gamer" class picks, against my better judgement. Still, having a big ol' pet is pretty fun, I guess.


Witch. I wasn't on Team Witch at first. The fantasy of being a creepy backwoods hermit-caster is cool, and so is every other type of witch I can think of, honestly. I just didn't see the use of the class at first. Like, we have a lot of caster classes if you want to play a "witch".  An arcane caster with a mix of divine and arcane spells is nice, though, so I didn't really complain too loudly.

Here's the thing, though. Hexes are amazing. They're great debuffs, and with Cackle extending durations, sometimes it doesn't even matter if they succeed at the save. Their spell slot longevity is through the roof thanks to hexes, meaning they can easily hold their own in combat with a spell list half-full or more of utility. Witch is definitely another diamond in the rough: it doesn't jump out at you, but it's an amazing class that's a ton of fun to play.


Antipaladin. This is one of three classes that ride the line between being an archetype or a real class, but we'll go over it briefly anyway. Antipaladin is a classic concept that never exactly made a lot of sense to me, because the logical opposite of a Paladin's code would essentially be to be cruel and mean to everyone for no reason...and that just doesn't scan to me like the core Paladin's code. It sounds childish and dumb. Still, if you can convince your gm to be lenient, or to take the Tyranny archetype which makes you Lawful Evil, Antipaladin can be a lot of fun.

Mechanically, they're far more offensive in nature than paladins. They get touch of corruption, which then can be delivered via a full attack action thanks to Crusader's Fist, so long as you don't mind doing it via unarmed strike. Smite Good is never gonna be as useful as Smite Evil...even in a dedicated Evil Character game. It's the nature of evil, after all: Good guys fight bad guys...bad guys fight everyone. However, Touch of Corruption is damn nice, so I guess it works out. Oh, and good news: You get a copy of Divine Grace.

Ultimate Combat

Gunslinger. There is so fucking much to unpack here that you wouldn't believe it. I'll try to leave the big stuff to their own posts and just talk about the class itself. Ultimate Combat introduces guns, and with guns came a class reminiscent of Blondie, of chivalrous musketeers, of mysterious western-style gunfighters...yeah. If you told me Gunslinger doesn't exactly fit a classic fantasy world you'd probably be right. I don't mind, though. I think it's okay to expand what source we have, what things we include and the richness of our fantasy worlds. Maybe that's just because super-high-fantasy, Tolkein style, wears me fucking thin. Posts for another day.

Gunslinger is like my little buddy, though. He keeps chugging along even though he's just plainly not very good. He's not very good because guns aren't very good. He has relatively few chances to get Grit back per day because he needs killing blows or critical hits...and he's not likely to get many crits seeing as how every gun ever made only crits on a 20. This is in sharp contrast to Swashbuckler, which we'll be addressing when we get there. Suffice to say Swashbuckler shows us how Gunslinger could have felt but doesn't. Still, there's no class that absolutely doesn't work to play. I meant that when I said it. They've got some fun abilities, and I've always thought guns are cool. They're over-complicated and not worth using in Pathfinder, but they're cool.

My advice, if you want to play a gunslinger? Ask your GM to allow advanced firearms. It's a big ask, but it'll mean you're not languishing behind everyone in terms of combat. The hump most people have to get over isn't the mechanics of the advanced firearms, but the idea of them and the lore.


Ninja. Ninjas are cool. I did a whole post on that. I don't think any system absolutely needs a ninja class to have ninjas...but here we are. Ninja! You all know what a ninja is.

Unfortunately, what was a cool class with neat ideas is severely overshadowed by the printing of Unchained Rogue. If you really want to try this class, there's a third party conversion which brings it up to where Unchained Rogue is. Ask your GM if you can use it. Otherwise? I don't think the few unique things Ninja gets are worth playing a worse Rogue. You don't need to play ninja for your character to call themselves a ninja, anyway. Don't forget that.


Samurai. You remember how I said Ninja is a title, a state of being? You can absolutely say the same thing about Samurai. This is an alternate look at Cavalier, and except to just fill some space and appease some weaboos, I don't get why this exists. The fantasy of being a Samurai is super cool, but it can be arrived at many, many ways better than this.

Honestly, mechanically speaking, I can't even really tell you why this exists either. They get a lot of defensive-minded abilities. I guess that's cool if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise, this is a glorified Cavalier archetype.

Pathfinder Class Review, Core Book

So this is something I consider the bottom, bargain-basement level of content, but I feel like someone might actually benefit from me doing this. I'm going over thoughts and observations for every class, individually. This is because there's a fucking lot of them and sometimes people get paralyzed by choice or don't know how to approach a given class. Maybe this will help eliminate some of that. There's an enormous amount of personal choice in Pathfinder and I hate to see people toss it away because they're not informed.

I'll be going in, very roughly, release order. It'll be mixed up a bit for better pacing and length of content. Some books have only one class in it, but other books probably deserve their own posts. It won't do to give you weirdly short followed by weirdly long posts. We are separating by book, except for Pathfinder Unchained. I'm not going to bother going over both versions of the classes separately. It'll get mentioned(Wait your turn, Summoner), but don't expect a lot of technical information about the differences. There's no class I'd consider completely inviable, so I don't see a need to give them pure ratings like this is one of those enormously misleading class tier lists.

Core Rulebook

Unchained Barbarian. This is a pretty solid member of the 1:1 attack bonus club and one with a classic mythology I love. This is a great class for someone who enjoys budgeting a resource, because Rage is one of the best abilities in the game. You get more skill utility than Fighter or Paladin, and rage powers round out in-combat utility nicely. Given the abilities you've got(see below), it's your first choice if you want to play someone who doesn't wear much but still comes off as tough as hell.

Barbarian can easily reach pounce(an extremely important ability) via the possibly-overpowered Beast totem and have extremely powerful abilities in Superstition, Terrifying Howl, and their various immunities like Internal Fortitude. Barbarian in general gets excellent defensive capabilities, between their temporary HP from raging, D12 hit points, DR and Uncanny Dodge. You have to give up the fighter's enormous list of feats, so it's most likely you'll be building for two-handed fighting...or possibly a shield.


Bard. This class is long considered the king of the utility classes, though their crown is tarnished a bit by Pathfinder's large amount of competitors. If you want to do a little bit of everything or play a real con artist type, Bard's your class. You get skills, support abilities, some of the best buffs in the game via bard song, spells, 3/4ths attack bonus, an okay list of weapons...you got a little bit of everything. You'll either love or hate the core conceit of being a performer, but Bard casts a much wider net than that these days anyway.

Bard has an excellent spell list, and a progression that supports variety and preparedness over spells per day. They've got the extremely powerful boost to skill utility Versatile Performer as well. Really, hurting people is the only thing on Bard's report card that they get less than an A+ at...but even then, a C isn't a bad grade. To be really capable with combat you probably need to take an archetype like Archaeologist or Dervish Dancer, but you won't be a slouch without it.  Bard also has probably the largest amount of funky Archetypes to try, some that really shake up what the class gets by giving you a powerful ability instead of bard song.


Cleric. I don't know what it is about religious concepts I like so much. Maybe something about all that conviction and dedication I never had, validated by a force you can prove is real. Let's not get philosophical, though...everyone knows it's fun to play, whether you're dedicated to a god or just a conceptual force. Cleric is one of the game's best switch hitters, able to fill two wildly different roles depending on spell selection and feats.

So there was a term, CoDZilla. CoD means "Cleric or Druid" and "Zilla" means "Fucking Monster". For those of you who weren't around for the wildly varying balance of D&D 3.X, Cleric and Druid were king. You had an excellent spell list, you had the best buffs in the game, you had 3/4ths attack bonus, nobody was better. While that's certainly not true any more...your buffs are still great. You still get medium armor. Your spell list is still damn good. For curing conditions like poisons, diseases, curses and all the rest of the stuff that's going to happen to an adventurer all the god damn time, there's nobody better. Cleric is still a great way to play someone who can provide utility and support but still push people's faces in...or vice versa.


Druid. I did a whole set of posts on Druid's class fantasy, so I think it's obvious I love them. There's something about the standoffish, strange natural spellcaster that's really cool. Someone who lives on the outside of society, looking in. Someone who sees your cute little society on the same level as an ant or primate colony. You should consider Druid a sister class to Cleric, and a lot of things I said about them can be said about Druid as well, so I'll be brief.

You get a little better skill utility thanks to wild empathy, wild shape and just plain having more skill points. That said, you're still a damn good switch hitter: You've got a great spell list, and any buff spells you lack are propped up by wild shape, perfectly useable if you have to kick some ass. You get either an animal companion or a single domain from a short list, and frankly...both are pretty good choices. Your choice of animal companion can be for flat damage, but there's also a lot of ways to get decent utility out of them, like a dedicated "assist bitch" who can do scouting or stealthing when they're not in combat.


Fighter. Alright, I hope you didn't think all of these were gonna be positive...because I have bad news. I'm not Team Fighter, guys. I can't say a damn thing about its effectiveness: it's a great class. It's straightforward. Some people like that. I don't. There's something to be said for playing a soldier, a career killer, a guard or any other concept that slots perfectly into fighter...but I find that every time I come up with one of those, I end up taking a more robust class. To me, it's almost a class without a fantasy: "I'm good at killing people" is the kind of thing someone says when they don't really have a character.

You get feats. That's what you get. You can either take Weapon Training and Armor Training as-is or trade them for some fairly fantastic bonuses, but in general? You're here because you get feats. When you're not in combat, what you "get" is you "get" to stand around and wait for the next combat. Feats in this game are the path to in-combat utility and damage, and combining them effectively can make for a deadly character. Fighter's even good for taking just a few levels along with another class just for a little bump. But if you're not good at picking feats...Fighter loses a lot of its lustre. I mean, I'm not even good judge, there's a ton of feats in this game and some people have other hobbies. I don't, but I'm sure someone does.


Unchained Monk. I consider this class to be rogue's "bro" in terms of a combat capable skill character. Monk is great for a capable character with good utility that doesn't deal with spells at all. As for the fantasy and feel of the class? Oh, man, what do I even have to say? I'm sure everyone reading this can name five or six martial arts films they fucking love. Between the badass, mystifying nature of the martial arts and the cool pseudo-philosophy you get to spout, Monk is a blast.

You're pretty deadly in combat, thanks to flurry giving you attack spam. You get Style Strike thanks to the Unchained rework, which means you can take a minor amount of movement before taking a full attack action, an incredibly powerful thing. You get Ki Pool and a large list of Ki powers, giving you a lot of utility via a managed resource. You also get great skills and some pretty good physical capabilities like fast movement, feather balance, or high jump. You also get some of the better defensive abilities in the game, like diamond soul, evasion, or purity of body.


Paladin. This one always gets a reputation for being pretty arrogant thanks to its alignment restriction and code of honor, but paladin is fun. Everything I said about conviction under cleric I could repeat here too: It's compelling and fun to play sometimes. This is also the class that never stops: No matter what, you're tough enough to keep going. A great way to play a character who won't quit or can't be stopped.

You get 1:1 attack bonus, spells, and the best defensive power in the game: Divine Grace. Sure, you get other great ones like Lay on Hands, but Divine Grace will make people tired of hearing you made your save. You also get Smite Evil...which is a damn powerful thing considering most games are gonna have you fighting evil monsters a majority of the time.


Ranger. Do I have to? I guess I have to. Ranger is modeled after Aragorn. It's a class that's sort of like an alternate paladin, where they get some spells and abilities but still get to be a master fightsman. The fantasy I always saw negatively, and I really can't help it: shitty druids, generic woodsman concepts, and people who like Lord of the Rings way too much. I know I'm not being fair. I'm sorry.

Ranger isn't a terrible class by any means. Some of their fighting style tracks are big traps, but most of them are okay, particularly two weapon fighting giving you most of the feats without having to have a high dex. You have a good spell list, okay skills, and you're one of the few classes that can easily fight with both a bow and melee weapons without giving up too much.

Favored Enemy is stupid and I hate it. It's ultimately a toxic ability that makes balance slightly more painful for your GM. It's too good when it comes up and how often it comes up is entirely at the whim of the GM. It's one of the few abilities in the game that's often taken away unintentionally because it's a headache to balance around.


Unchained Rogue. The other non-spell utility class and a classic bastard. Culture is filled with an enormous amount of rogues and they're all awesome. You can generally use whatever light weapon you want and you have the game's best skill powers at your disposal. Your effectiveness is tied almost intrinsically to your inventiveness. Every party has a rogue, and it's easy to see why.

You're also pretty solid at combat if you pre-plan and bring friends. You can rival fighters in damage thanks to finesse training and Debilitating Injury. You have access to skill unlocks to widen your skill capabilities, and rogue talents are chock full of amazing capabilities, both in-combat and out. Powers like Rumormonger can tilt entire plots if applied carefully.


Sorcerer. I know what you're thinking. Skip this loser and get to the real arcane caster. They're widely considered "not as good" as wizard, but frankly? I've got a big soft spot for them. I love the class fantasy of being a magical being, someone who didn't really work for their power, but I also have a soft spot for the way their spellcasting works. See below.

You get more spells per day, but you give up versatility. That's supposed to be the trade-off. You get bloodline powers to make up for the gap in that trade as well. Sorcerer is good for someone who wants to make a spellcaster dedicated to a narrower specialty than a wizard or who doesn't like the preparation aspect of the wizard class. I'd also say that while a damage-focused spellcaster probably won't ever beat a melee class for damage, but sorcerer would shine at it thanks to several damage-focused favored class bonuses and the ability to really spam spells.

Really, that's the benefit. Picking a few great spells and using them all fucking day. It's a niche I just happen to like.


Wizard. Calm down. Like, right off the bat calm down. I'm not gonna sit here and say Wizard isn't an amazing class. It is. But it's been overhyped since day one and not all of it is deserved. Some of that is probably how fucking iconic it is: Every game's gonna have berobed old men weaving mystic spells...murderous magical cultists, or mage school intrigue. They're inseparable from a fantasy game.

Your benefit is the wide breadth of what the arcane spell list has to offer and the fact that you can do anything given a day to prepare, and maybe some gold to buy a spell to put in your spellbook. That's why everyone hypes up Wizard: they're the prep-time class. The Batman class. Outside of prep-time, the arcane spell list is also the best crowd control in the game, hands down. Sorcerers benefit from this too, but Wizards have the ability to tailor what they're taking to the weaknesses of the enemies they're going to fight...and also the ability to cast spells to find out which enemies they're going to fight. If you like preparation, planning, and picking through your spell list...This is the class for you.


@}-,-'--


So Stupidly, I expected to get through more than one book today. I don't know what I was thinking: The Core Book has the most iconic, the most useful and the longest-standing classes. You'll notice I was positive on most of them. There's a lot to say about them, even about the classes which are really just alternate versions: Druid and Ranger. In the future you're gonna find that a lot of classes use a core class as a blueprint, and I think that's okay. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. So I'm sorry if today was a little boring for you lifers who have been staring these classes in the face for 20+ years...but there's new players every day.