Favorite Archetypes


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


So its been many years since APG came out and introduced the idea of Archetypes to us. At first it was an odd concept and was hit or miss to some people.

Fast forward a few years and many of us couldn't imagine playing without them. So, I ask you guys, what are your favorite archetypes amd why?


Mechanically - Brown-fur Transmuter. That 9th level ability is beyond amazing.

Flavor - Arcane duelist. First PC was a bard. I'm a sucker for nostalgia.


I love the Myrmadarch Magus because i have always loved Arcane Archers and this is the closest you can get to it...

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This happens a lot. ^_^

Dark Archive

Sanctified Slayer because I could finally play my rogue/cleric type character that I've wanted to play and it doesn't suck.


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I love archetypes, traits, and drawbacks because they make deep immersion storytelling even better. My personal favorite is a female halfling gunslinger that I'm playing who has the mysterious stranger archetype, courageous, freedom fighter and child of the streets traits, and loner drawback. It really fleshes her out and makes it easier to imagine her more fully. She also has the no name feat.

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Bladebound Magus

Getting a sentient sword that grows with power is already wicked cool. However, I turned the magus's blackblade in into an epic plot that spanned over three years of my campaign. In my campaign, the magus's blackblade is a servant of a mysterious otherworldy entity called the Yatagarasu. Having been slain in life, the blackblade now thrusts his responsibilities to the magus and do the Yatagarasu's bidding. Over the course of the campaign, Yatagarasu occasionally communicates through the magus or through shadowy ravens with jade eyes, having the party do errands for her. At first the magus and the party resented the Yatagarasu, but now they consider her a valuable ally. The gunslinger now wants to decorate his ship in motifs like the blackblade and the magus crafted a pair of shadowy wings of flying. At this very moment, the party is on a quest to obtain dangerous artifacts on request by the Yatagarasu in effort to resurrect her into the Material Plane. All the while, my players are crossing their fingers that the Yatagarasu will not turn out to be evil and betray them.


Phalanx fighter. I just like it, is all.


Spirit Ranger
Scout
Feral Hunter


Daring Champion. It's like somebody saw the finalized version of the Swashbuckler and said "shit, need to slip in a fix for this".


Titan maulers are really fun, if only to imagine a character wielding two weapons that are twice their size.


Fighter:
Unbreakable - They SUCK at 5th level and later, but are amazing for multi-classing. Dip in 3 levels and you're golden; 4 feats, a way better version of Bravery, and also Armor Training.
Lore Warden: I love playing rogues, and I honestly don't believe there is another archetype is existence that compliments them as well as this one does.

Magus:
Bladebound: I've never made one but I've seen them played and they look really fun.

Monk:
Zen Archer - So awesome for so many reasons.
Qinggong - I actually don't like this archetype much due to its absurd broken-ness, but there are NO DOWNSIDES and you can get Barksin, so... yeah.

Oracle:
Dual-Cursed Oracle - Your party loves you; free re-rolls for everyone! (Misfortune is way, way, WAY too good.)

Rogue:
Scout: An archetype named after my favorite class from 3.5; so very, very sad they didn't make it into Pathfinder. The ability trade-off is great, and it gives you options for sneak attack in situations where you would otherwise not have the ability. Step Up and Strike in this archetype is absolutely insane.

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I really like it when archetypes stack in interesting ways...

Lore warden/martial master fighter is clever and adaptable like no other fighter, and always has the right combat maneuver for the job...

Mutation warrior/eldritch guardian fighter is so supernatural he hardly seems like a fighter; pick up pragmatic activator and the magus variant multiclass and you're really gonna have some options...

Qinggong/Sensei monk isn't overly powerful but can use Mystic Wisdom to apply his wide range of ki powers to others (making them one of the only ways to use true strike on someone else)


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These threads usually come down to "list the most powerful archetypes". But being powerful can be fun in its own way.

I really like the Arcanist: Occultist. It's what the summoner should have been in the first place. Now we just need a class or archetype that gets the eidolon part of the summoner class without the spell casting baggage.


I like crypt breaker alchemist, hedge witch, mutagenic Mauler brawler (because Bane) hex magus and tattoo sorcerer.

Some really nifty things that add some cool effects from other classes that I like I guess. I was into hybrids before they were cool.


Barbarian: Scarred Rager - Great flavor, enhances skill/social role in a nice context-engaging way, and mechanically great. (Rage Cycle enabling for 1)

Sorceror: Tattoed - Love the flavor, love the convenience of Familiar w/ any Bloodline, like the interesting way it adds "prepared slots", and having a Sorc WITHOUT Eschew Material is interesting - although you very well may end up wanting to "buy" it back via Feat due to way the Spell Tattoos work (no material component spells).

Druid: Menhir Savant - Mechanically great, but mainly this just feels more like the kind of Druid I'd like to play, more Caster-y, more occult, etc... Honestly, if that had gone further and weakened Wild Shape that would have been fine by me, but regardless, this is pretty cool. Combine with Domain option.


I tend to prefer third party classes and archetypes, because they are usually more interesting, and in my experience better balanced than many Paizo created classes and archetypes.

I use third party ideas, to design most of my own archetypes - and then I prefer them. I am currently building archetypes to support an Old West setting, creating at least one archetype for practically every class to fit - guns everywhere, 19th century technology and occupations, and aberrants are the primary bad guys kinds of flavor.


Sohei is extremely effective. Flurry a Nodachi in two hands with ki strike applying, and slap on some gloves of dueling with your weapon training. Do it in light armor if you want to. Add half your level to initiative checks. Make any old mount survivable, and take bonus mounted combat feats without prerequisites. Besides the power factor, weapon Monks are, in my opinion, a lot more flavorful than running around punching things.


Dirge Bard, Bards are awesome, necromancers are awesome and animating corpses by dancing is fun


Synthesist. Mainly because my GM flavors it like my character is going full Kamen Rider. Because Kamen Rider just makes everything more fun!


Archaeologist Bard
Cross-blooded Sorcerer
Iroran Paladin
Sacred Fist Warpriest
Possessed Shaman
Primalist Bloodrager
Titan Mauler Barbarian
Viking Fighter

.......

There are more, MANY more, but I've only listed the ones I've played for any length of time.


Oh I completely forgot the Beast Bonded Witch. Now THAT is a cool archetype :P


I had great fun playing a tripping polearm master fighter, total awesomeness. Zen Archer looks like fun, as does Preacher Inquisitor because you can finally get rid of those damn useless teamwork feats!


Crossblooded. I virtually can't bring myself to make a sorcerer or bloodrager that only has one bloodline. I like having a wider range of feats to pick from, and being able to pick and choose from bloodline spells and powers(especially since they often make each other redundant, especially with capstones).

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