"Face" class


Advice


The party we are about to run consists of- Witch, Gunslinger, Ranger, Samurai, and me. My question is what sort of class should i run? I assume a support role style buffer debuffer with good "face" stats. Any advice?


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Oracle. Your party lacks Divine casting, and Oracle is Charisma focused.

Silver Crusade

Well, you're lacking in divine casting.

Is the ranger going to be a front liner or an archer type? If he's not front lining, then the samurai could get lonely holding the front line by himself.

A front line divine type seems like the obvious choice, such as a paladin, cleric, or warpriest. If you don't need front line so much, then any divine caster would do well.

Or you could just be a bard. I always like bards. Every group can always use the extra buffing, and if the GM lets you get wands easily, then you can serve a semi-healing roll with wands of Cure Light.


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Off topic but man that is quite a diverse group. Gone are the days where every party was either quasi-european or tolkein-esque. Now we gots Witches along gunslingers with samurai.

But I will make a contribution:
Barbarian/Alchemist? claw, claw, bite, gore, rage, throw, boom, buff?

Cleric, bowler? (Power attack, imp overrun, greater overrun)


(Edit: This is more in response to Fromper than the OP.)

Oracle can be built to fulfill the frontline role, either conventionally with Battle Mystery, or by using the Lunar or Heavens mysteries instead:

- Frontliners are supposed to block enemies, right? Moonlight Bridge functions as Wall of Force and you can get it right from level 1. It is available to both Heavens and Lunar.

- Also available to both is Mantle of Moonlight. The absurdly specific lycanthropy-related stuff is not the point at all; its purpose is shutting enemy casters down instantly with a touch attack, no save. The Rage effect has been FAQ'ed to work on unwilling targets.

- Both get an AC boost, Heavens grants a pseudo Mage Armor that scales a little, Lunar lets you use Charisma in place of Dex for AC and Reflex. Lunar is the hands-down winner in the long run, Heavens might be better for you at low to mid levels.

- Lunar gets a full progression animal companion for the low, low price of one Revelation. There's a good boost to frontline capability right there, and later on you can take feats to have a flying mount.

- Heavens keeps Color Spray in full effect until somewhere around level 10. That is extremely handy on the front line, Color Spray some chump(s) and let the Samurai deliver the Coup De Grace with his katana, which is better at Coup De Graces for some reason. Combine with metamagic cheapening traits and Persistent Spell, if you want your DM to smack you upside the head and/or start sending Undead at you all day, every day.

- Oracles, Clerics, and Warpriests practically auto-qualify for Divine Protection, a feat that lets you add Charisma to all saves. Obviously a huge boost to Oracles. If you're going to be on the front lines, you're going to be rolling a lot of saving throws.


Bard would do the trick too, minus the "divine" part of it.


The Witch can cover a lot of the same ground as a divine caster. They don't get Restoration unless they take the Healing patron, but you can probably get that as a scroll.

The Bard is a classic buff/debuff PC. If you want to make it a little tougher in melee you could consider taking 4 levels of Paladin with Oath of Vengeance. I played a PC like that, and it was a blast. He had super high Diplomacy and good Knowledge skills even though he was kind of dumb. The Dirge Bard archetype is fun and gives you some interesting spell choices though some might find a Paladin who dabbles in necromancy to be kind of a weird guy.

Another choice which would fit the "frontliner" role very well would be Summoner. They have high Charisma, and your eidolon could help out with skills if needed. You'd get Haste as a 2nd level spell along with some other nice buffs plus some Pits and such for battlefield control. You might want to take some traits to get Diplomacy and or Sense Motive as class skills though (or maybe a level of Monk combined with a trip into the Bodyguard feat chain...)

@Athaleon - I agree with your assessment that the player might get slapped in the head by the DM for playing that Oracle.

Sovereign Court

The bard doesn't really need to multi-class to be decent in melee. And falling behind with both spellcasting & their bard buffs makes it an iffy prospect. They won't be high-end damage dealers (better once fencing grace is in play or if you GM allows it) but they can hold their own without it if you don't put too many stat points into charisma. If you're focusing on buff spells, a charisma of 14 is plenty high.

Heck - my PFS bard doesn't deal all that much damage (not horrible though - and in my head I include the extra damage done by inspire courage as his damage), but aside from his buffing, he usually tanks for the party. I don't think I've played with anyone who has an equal or higher AC since level 3. (trait lets him use mithril breastplate at no penalty along with his shield)


A single classed bard can probably afford to go with a "decent" Charisma. The Paladin 4/Bard X should get Charisma as high as possible though since it makes the Paladin abilities work. You don't need a great Int since you will get a decent number of skill points, and Wis can be dumped since the Paladin levels will give you Cha to saves.

The single classed Bard can be great too. I just like to make things more complicated.


You could go Evangelist cleric, and just have a high charisma and enough wis to cast. This way you get the bard buff and divine caster, Take 1 level of something with heavy armor if you want to be armored and be awesome because you don't have spell failure.


Evangelist definitely seems pretty cool. If you go with the Animal domain or focus on summoning you could also still help fill that "frontline" role pretty well.


Evangelist archetype cleric or an oracle. Evangelist fills man bard roles and is full caster. Oracle offers many more options though. Either of these two would be a welcome addition to your party on multiple levels.


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Alchemist.

If you ever have the question, "what class should I play?"

The answer is alchemist.

Scarab Sages

Srtz wrote:
The party we are about to run consists of- Witch, Gunslinger, Ranger, Samurai, and me. My question is what sort of class should i run? I assume a support role style buffer debuffer with good "face" stats. Any advice?

Any class can be the party face, just avoid dumping charisma and prioritize your skill points.

That said, your party needs a divine caster.


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Inquisitor with the conversion inquisition can use Wisdom for bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate. All three are class skills, so you can just ignore Cha and still be the party face. You get to be a good combat character and get a lot of good skills (including a strong boost to identifying monsters). Make a half-orc and get another +1/2 level to intimidate and identifying monsters. Get sacred tattoo and fate's favored while you're at it.


Student of Philosophy can also make any intelligence based class into a face for a trait.

Athaleon wrote:


Oracle can be built to fulfill the frontline role, either conventionally with Battle Mystery, or by using the Lunar or Heavens mysteries instead:

You can also do it with Nature or Lunar by focusing on your animal companion. Aasimar Oracle alternate favored class bonus (get a very high effective druid level by boosting the AC giving revelation), Evolve Companion, Spirit's Gift and Celestial Companion can make a tiger into a beast even before you start using Share Spells to buff it.

Grand Lodge

Oracle.

You can go different routes with the class, and it fills some other important roles, such as divine casting.

Grand Lodge

-Oracle, You can go with a Wood Oracle with Ancient Lorekeeper and grab gravity bow, etc for archery
-Battle Oracle
-Paladin (Two handed or archery)
-Evangelist Cleric
-Inquisitor with the Conversión Domain


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I would first ask if the Ranger intends to melee as a front line warrior. That makes a big difference in what is needed. Getting more details from the other characters would also help as it would give you a much more accurate indication of what is missing in the group.

I would most likely go reach cleric or oracle. If the Ranger is a switch-hitter or melee combatant, then I would also consider Bard a reasonable choice.

Sovereign Court

BretI wrote:
I would most likely go reach cleric or oracle. If the Ranger is a switch-hitter or melee combatant, then I would also consider Bard a reasonable choice.

Especially if the ranger is going TWF. TWF gets more out of inspire courage than anyone else.


Charon's Little Helper wrote:
BretI wrote:
I would most likely go reach cleric or oracle. If the Ranger is a switch-hitter or melee combatant, then I would also consider Bard a reasonable choice.
Especially if the ranger is going TWF. TWF gets more out of inspire courage than anyone else.

Fortunately the evangelist merges those very nicely. Wont be as good at reaching as a baseline reach cleric but the inspire courage makes up for a lot.


Dispari Scuro wrote:
Inquisitor with the conversion inquisition can use Wisdom for bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate. All three are class skills, so you can just ignore Cha and still be the party face. You get to be a good combat character and get a lot of good skills (including a strong boost to identifying monsters). Make a half-orc and get another +1/2 level to intimidate and identifying monsters. Get sacred tattoo and fate's favored while you're at it.

This is a great suggestion if you don't want to be a full caster. A dwarf is also VERY good in this class. The dwarf and his favored class bonus makes him the better combatant and can have better resistance against spells (more favorable attributes as well). The half orc has slightly better saves against non spells, better mouth skills, and has better weapon proficiencies. Both are rock solid.


Renegadeshepherd wrote:
Dispari Scuro wrote:
Inquisitor with the conversion inquisition can use Wisdom for bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate. All three are class skills, so you can just ignore Cha and still be the party face. You get to be a good combat character and get a lot of good skills (including a strong boost to identifying monsters). Make a half-orc and get another +1/2 level to intimidate and identifying monsters. Get sacred tattoo and fate's favored while you're at it.
This is a great suggestion if you don't want to be a full caster. A dwarf is also VERY good in this class. The dwarf and his favored class bonus makes him the better combatant and can have better resistance against spells (more favorable attributes as well). The half orc has slightly better saves against non spells, better mouth skills, and has better weapon proficiencies. Both are rock solid.

Oh yeah, that dwarf favored class is pretty good. If you throw it on something like attack or damage it could see a lot of use.

I built a character just like this and I'm extremely satisfied with the results. Inquisitors already get 1/2 level to intimidate, plus half-orcs can add another half level with their favored class, and they just get a +2 in general. My build includes Cornugon Smash, with +15 intimidate at 3, +30 at 10, and +50 at 20.

I grabbed a trait to give local as a class skill, and along with adding Wis as well as 1/2 level to identify monsters, the character has +12 to all the knowledges for that purpose at level 3. I also found the flavor of sacred tattoo worked well with getting a holy symbol tattoo. So all around you get huge bonuses to identifying monsters (for use with bane), really strong saves, and the ability to shake anyone you hit. All that while still being good at bluff and diplomacy, plus a few other skills.

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