Guy I know wants a simple PC.
He won’t be playing PFS too often, just when he is in the area visiting friends. So he doesn’t want to have to relearn a whole lot every time. But he also wants it to be at least moderately effective.
* He doesn’t like rolling umpteen handfuls of dice and keeping track of total with different energy types and damage types. So not interested in the buzzsaw TWF builds. He would rather static bonuses to damage instead of additional dice.
* From conversation he’d rather not learn spells, but a very minor caster like a ranger/paladin would be ok. I was going to suggest a vanilla fighter, but he wants some out of combat skills.
* Combat maneuvers with all their weird rules are definitely out.
* He doesn’t want to have to be figuring ok this attack I have these bonuses and these penalties, next attack I have the same penalties but one less bonus. So I’m thinking favored enemies and smite probably are not good. He wants it to be on the sheet and pretty much the same every time.
* I think all the crap dealing with a pet would not be enjoyable to him.
* If I remember correctly, he likes to move around a lot so probably won’t get all that many full attacks anyway.
So I’m thinking a ranger battle scout switch hitter with a THW and bow as backup.
Battle scout replaces animal companion and all but one of the favored enemies and for the single favored enemy he can always pick something that isn’t seen very often but would be useful in those rare occasions like dragons
Could combine it with the Trapper archtype if he doesn’t want the spells. Choosing to not ever use the ability to create traps wouldn’t be a problem and it would give him trapfinding.
Probably half-orc for the +2 to strength and not needing to worry about a light source.
Archery style for a few without the prerequisites.
1 power attack (leave it always on for his character sheet)
2 style – precise shot
3 weapon focus
5 iron will
6 style – improved precise shot
7 pushing assault
9 improved critical
10 style – shot on the run
11 improved iron will
It won’t be huge damage, but it should be pretty consistent damage. Not really worried about the higher level end of it. I figure an occasional player will probably never actually get to the high levels.
What do you think about this? Is it simple enough for an occasional player (I will handle the character sheet for him)?
Will it be survivable and effective enough to be welcome at the table?
For a simple character without a lot of bonus to worry about, I would consider the new Brawler class. It's basically a monk, but better. Focus on strength and wisdom and flurry his way to victory. Consider a Master of Many Styles monk dip so he can have Pummeling Style and Dragon Style active at the same time.
Feats would include power attack, pummeling style, and dragon style feats.
If he doesn't like the Fighter because he wants out-of-combat options, maybe he just needs some Int to get more skill points. I've got an archer with the Lore Warden archetype and 16 Int; with his FCB going to skills, that's 8/level. Good Knowledges for identifying monsters, plus Linguistics, and Spellcraft for identifying spells makes him quite useful before he even picks up his bow.
Since the plan is 'Power Attack- Always On' consider Furious Focus.
For the first five levels, it's more damage at no penalty.
After that, he will have to deal with iterative attacks with different bonuses anyway.
We have a guy at our home game that plays similarly- he's only able to join us occasionly but enjoys playing more than memorizing rules.
We set him up with 3x5 cards detailing his attacks under different conditions.
Two for straight melee- standard and full attack.
One for just archery.
Two with Bard bonuses- melee and ranged.
Two with Haste added- melee and ranged.
And whoever sits next to him helps with adding other buffs.
It helps that the table we play on has a sheet of 4'x8' dry erase as a tabletop, so notes are done on the table with a dry erase marker.
Process is take his cards, add buffs, and write his attacks on the table for him.
He choses what to do with no worries about math.
(By the way, he's running a Samurai/ two-handed fighter- combining the roleplay he wanted with fewer details. We have enough people playing he's rarely the one making skill rolls.)
If he doesn't like the Fighter because he wants out-of-combat options, maybe he just needs some Int to get more skill points. I've got an archer with the Lore Warden archetype and 16 Int; with his FCB going to skills, that's 8/level. Good Knowledges for identifying monsters, plus Linguistics, and Spellcraft for identifying spells makes him quite useful before he even picks up his bow.
Well, I don't think a medium intelligence will be enough on its own. But I didn't think of lore warden. Isn't that mostly for combat maneuver builds?
I'll have to go re-read. I haven't looked at that one in a while.
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Two-Handed Fighter, Human, Vital Strike, Ioun Torch.
Check out this thread for a simple, one hit build.
If he doesn't like the Fighter because he wants out-of-combat options, maybe he just needs some Int to get more skill points. I've got an archer with the Lore Warden archetype and 16 Int; with his FCB going to skills, that's 8/level. Good Knowledges for identifying monsters, plus Linguistics, and Spellcraft for identifying spells makes him quite useful before he even picks up his bow.
Well, I don't think a medium intelligence will be enough on its own. But I didn't think of lore warden. Isn't that mostly for combat maneuver builds?
I'll have to go re-read. I haven't looked at that one in a while.
It does boost CMB, but I don't take advantage of it (but the bonus to CMD never hurts). The issue is that he only gets light armor, so you'd want good Dex. Or you could save up for Elven Chain or a mithral breastplate + Armor Expert trait to get the protection of medium armor. Or take a 1 level dip into Barbarian or Ranger to pick up medium armor.