I was thinking druid and summoner for arcane, divine, healing, spell casting, skills, combat power etc.
what do you think?
Thanks!
Wizard/Sorcerer and Cleric/Oracle would be the best combination.
Also, inb4 Caster Martial disparity.
Wizard/Sorcerer and Cleric/Oracle would be the best combination.
Also, inb4 Caster Martial disparity.
umm no action economy and a lack of tankiness and survivability until super high level.
I've been GMing for a two man party for a while now. For them a tank and caster pairing works pretty well. Thus far they've done barbarian/sorcerer, and are now playing with a paladin/druid team.
My friend and I attempted this, and we came up with a hex crafter magus, and a Druid with a level of armored hulk barbarian.
I really like the Druid Summoner idea partly because they are two of my favorite classes. I think they work well with each other because you have minions to tank damage and your Action Econ is great.
I would want to go with a master summoner so you get more minions on the field if you can Or the monster tactiancan inquisitor which get the master summoner's summons + teamwork feats for your summons. Teamwork feats on the druid as well can help a lot in combat.
The main problem is that neither of them are high hit rate, they don't have great bab. Also dealing with a single mighty foe may be hard -perhaps a dragon of high Cr. A druid can reach great heights if he focuses on wild shaping more than spells. I'm always fond of monk druids but which ever would work well.
Another idea is to go double support. have a summoner and then add a bard. A bard can still be a good combatant though they are rarely played as such. His music would make all the summons really strong too which would help against stronger enemies.
I might suggest warpriest rather than cleric.
Mostly because of action economy. They can buff as a swift, and the alignment blessings have standard action summoning (which I am pretty sure could be made swift with quickened blessing).
Basically, both of these insure the largest number of hands on the field as soon as possible.
So that makes up for the lesser number of spells, to some extent. When it is 2 people, action economy is VITAL. You don't have anything to spare. So same general spell list, even if the spells are somewhat lagged and limited. At least you can use most of the scrolls and such.
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Barbarian + witch(Sometimes the simplest solutions work best).
Alternatively, sylvan sorcerer + evangelist cleric(feather domain). DR is going to be a B*tch though. Skills will be a problem too, and later levels, animal companion saves don't really cut it. Oh well, you can't have everything.
Another funny, but probably not so optimised idea I wanted to try was for a hexcrafter + evangelist cleric(feather domain).
Personally I'd love to see two well-crafted melee/caster hybrid Clerics or Oracles go to work, since they can each take whatever action is the most useful at any given moment. Two characters that are good-to-great at multiple roles would be tactically godly.
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Barbarian + witch(Sometimes the simplest solutions work best).
With miniature giant space hamster!!!
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Only 2 people, eh? I can think of 2 approaches (actually more) to this.
The Straight-Up Approach
At least one of them (and preferably both) needs to supply some serious action economy. AND skills are going to be at a premium.
So have character #1 be a Master Summoner with the Eidolon built for skills (for which being half-strength doesn't hurt as much as for an Eidolon that is actually supposed to fight). Fortunately, Summoners are easy on the ability score points, so our Master Summoner can afford to spend some ability score points in uncconventional ways.
One or even two Master Summoners will not be able to keep up with enemies' action economy, so character #2 needs to devalue the enemies' action economy, and needs to fill in holes in thte Summoner's spellcasting coverage (including bad status removal), so a Halfling (Jinxing and eventually Area Jinxing) Debuffing Witch is the choice here.
Of course, both characters are going to want to get Leadership as soon as possible to cheat on the party size limit.
The Straight-Up Approach, EEeeEEVIiill Edition
Character #1 is a Master Summoner, as above except with a decidedly worse attitude, and is a Dhampir (or some variety of Tiefling) that has Negative Energy Affinity (for the reason why, see the changes to character #2).
Character #2, on the other hand, decides to make gainful use of all those fallen enemies, and is not only a Halfling (Jinxing) Deuffing Witch, but is a Gravewalker and Variant Channeling Negative Energy Hex Channeler, and takes a single feat interruption in the building of debuffing abilities to get Command Undead. Who's got the action economy now? The Walking Dead!
The Sneaky Approach
The other approach is to abandon the attempt to compensate for the party's inherently poor action economy, but make sure that the party never takes a straight-up fight, and make every effort to ensure that your enemies never know where you are or even who you are until it is too late.
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser come to mind.
But Pathfinder has just introduced the Eldritch Scoundrel, and last year introduced the Mesmerist and the Id Rager archetype of Bloodrager, so that our Grey Mouser substitute and even our Fafhrd substitute can have some real spellcasting power, with the Psychic classes having the advantage that all spellcasting is inherently Silent and Still. Other possibilities are Druid (Wildshape is great for disguise) and Arcane Trickster (use Diviner Wizard as your spellcasting base class, to make sure you see anything that has True Seeing before they see you). If you don't want a highly spell-dependent Grey Mouser, Unchained Rogue or Ninja transitioning into the Master Spy prestige class is a possibility.
The Integrated Approach
In some campaigns, the party may be able to function as a part of something larger -- like for instance, be a detective team that gains the trust of the City Watch, and that the City Watch turns to to solve cases that they cannot put their own detectives on (if they have any). In this case, the City Watch (or equivalent organization) can patch the party up if they get thrashed, and can even provide some muscle (and action economy) backup. For this, Investigators, Inquisitors, Blood Kineticists, Detective Bards, Arcanists, Witches, Wizards, and the Sleepless Detective prestige class are all obvious choices. For actual detective work, Blood Biography would be a very important spell, so make sure that at least one party member can cast it.
Scully and Mulder represent sort of a hybrid of the Sneaky Approach and the Integrated Approach.
A friend of mine wanted to play an anti-paladin in a 2 man campaaingme and him were going be in, (annoyingly the person who was going DM couldn't so yeah, anyway) so we ended up figuring out a fun way to combo with one. I was going be playing a drug lord, so we looked into weaponizing drugs, which i already had done with the drug I sold. We later went an noticed anti-paladin's are immune to disease but can still carry it, so we ended up planning out to get me disease immunity then give him all the diseases and send him in to destroy towns we had to fight as a epidemic pillar.
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I'm playing giant slayer now with just two players. We did a lot of planning on how to make it work. At the time we did not know how effective this combination would be in game play. We just made sure we have most of the same teamwork feet's.
Player 1
Human: Hunter
Bear
Player 2
Dwarf: Hunter
Small Cat
Urban druid and Occultist. For a city company of a lot of fun.
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So yeah, trying to stat it out:
Half Elven Sorcerer
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16
Traits:
Reactionary, Magical knack(preparation for dipping 1 lv nature oracle for friend to animals revelation) - curse lame or burned
Skills:
Spellcraft, Handle Animal, Diplomacy, Knowledge Nature
Feats
Lv 1: Boon companion, Skill focus nature
Lv 3: Eldritch Heritage (arcane) - for sage familiar
Lv 5: Boon companion(for familiar)
Lv 7: Spell focus conjuration
Lv 8 bloodline feat: Improved initiative
Lv 9: Piercing spell
The sage familiar starts to out knowledge ranks in the following order: local, planes, dungeoneering, arcana, history, geography, engineering, and after putting a point into every knowledge for skill checks, focuses on planes, dungeoneering, arcana and local.
Half Orc Evangelist cleric, feather domain
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 10
Trade orc ferocity for sacred tattoo.
Traits: Reactionary, Fates favored
Skills: Knowledge Religion, Handle Animal, Perception
Feats:
Lv 1: Point blank shot
Lv 3: Precise shot
Lv 5: Boon companion
Lv 7: Rapid shot
Lv 9: Deadly aim
The level 4 stat increase goes to int, in which the cleric can either pick up sense motive, or knowledge planes.
Life would be a lot easier for the pair if the GM allows leadership, in which the eldritch heritage tree for the sorc could be dropped, and the sorcerer uses leadership to get himself a skill monkey investigator at 7 to provide the party with crack infusions, and function as their trap disabler. The investigator doesn't even need to participate in combat.
Long-term (both gain 9th-level spells at 20th level):
Brawler (snakebite striker) 1/rogue 1/wizard (Evocation/Admixture) 4/arcane trickster 6/arcane archer 2/arcane trickster +4/arcane archer +2; archer, battlefield control, blaster, buffer, locks/traps, skill monkey, utility
Elf ranger 2/oracle (ancient lorekeeper; Wood mystery, FCB in Wood Bond revelation) 18; archer, buffer, healer, tank
Short-term (ready to go at 1st):
Hunter (divine hunter; Plant/Growth domain at 3rd)
Investigator (psychic detective) or rogue (eldritch scoundrel), depending on preference (the psychic list is more subtle, while the sorcerer/wizard list is more versatile)
Alternately, a bard and summoner combination could also do well, but requires a bit more work.
The Arcane Trickster can skip either the Rogue or Brawler level with the Accomplished Sneak Attacker Feat. That's a pretty solid call, optimization-wise.
Because of the qualifying prerequisites for arcane archer (plus Arcane Armor Training for defense; retrained to Quicken Spell on gaining 5th-level spells), the character progression above already has at least half the feats by 11th level spoken for. Brawler gives +1 BAB with the +1d6 Sneak Attack and rogue gives Trapfinding (to disarm magical traps); rogue is the easiest to dispense with (as long as you are allowed to take the Trap Finder campaign trait outside of Mummy's Mask; leaving only one other trait), but then there is only one feat (two if human*) left to use on anything else (Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Arcane Armor Training, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Weapon Focus by 11th level).
*- dwarf is probably a better choice, because Stonecunning can act like the Trap Spotter rogue talent in most dungeons
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Long-term (both gain 9th-level spells at 20th level):
Brawler (snakebite striker) 1/rogue 1/wizard (Evocation/Admixture) 4/arcane trickster 6/arcane archer 2/arcane trickster +4/arcane archer +2; archer, battlefield control, blaster, buffer, locks/traps, skill monkey, utility
{. . .}
(And you mention later that you want Quicken Spell when you gain 5th level spells.)
Trying to think of the most efficient (not necessarily fastest) way to enter -- in any case except as noted, make this an Elf to get Longbow proficiency and Elven Magic, and bag Arcane Armor Training (which isn't very good, although you could add it where I put a {whatever} for feat choice). Not convinced that Arcane Archer has the best synergy with Arcane Trickster, and it can make completion of Arcane Trickster difficult, but here it is (note that if you boot out Arcane Archer entirely, completing Arcane Trickster becomes much easier, and caster level loss is less, plus you have 3 more feats, one of which could even be used to keep Accomplished Sneak Attacker instead of retraining it, if you want):
The Caster-Focused Approach
Wizard 10/Arcane Trickster 2/Arcane Archer 2 or 4/Arcane Trickster 6 or 4 more (total 8 or 6)
(This only loses 1 caster level eventually, so the trait Magical Knack is optional; it has the disadvantage of not completing Arcane Trickster unless the campaign goes Epic, even if only 2 levels of Arcane Archer are taken.)
1. Wizard 1: Bonus feat = Scribe Scroll; level 1 character feat = Point Blank Shot
2. Wizard 2.
3. Wizard 3: Level 3 character feat = VMC Rogue I = Trapfinding
4. Wizard 4.
5. Wizard 5: Bonus feat = {pick your Metamagic Feat, Item Creation Feat, or Wizard Discovery}; level 5 character feat = Precise Shot
6. Wizard 6.
7. Wizard 7: Level 7 character feat = VMC Rogue II = Sneak Attack progression starting +1d6 (+1d6/4 levels after 7)
8. Wizard 8.
9. Wizard 9: Level 9 character feat = Accomplished Sneak Attacker
10. Wizard 10: Bonus feat = Quicken Spell.
11. Arcane Trickster 1: Level 11 character feat = VMC Rogue III = Evasion; Sneak Attack progression has reached +3d6, or +2d6 without Accomplished Sneak Attacker, so retrain the now-superfluous Accomplished Sneak Attacker to Weapon Focus (Longbow)
12. Arcane Trickster 2.
13. Arcane Archer 1: Level 13 character feat = {whatever}
14. Arcane Archer 2.
15. Arcane Archer 3 or Arcane Trickster 3: Level 15 character feat = VMC Rogue IV = Uncanny Dodge
16. Arcane Archer 4 or Arcane Trickster 4.
17. Arcane Trickster 3 or 5 (depending upon whether you took 4 or 2 levels of Arcane Archer): Level 17 character feat = {whatever}
18. Arcane Trickster 4 or 6.
19. Arcane Trickster 5 or 7: Level 15 character feat = VMC Rogue V = Improved Uncanny Dodge
20. Arcane Trickster 6 or 8. (Sneak Attack from VMC Rogue and Arcane Trickster peaks at +7d6 or +8d6.)
The Surgical Approach
Vicisectionist Alchemist 1/Wizard 4/Arcane Trickster 4/Wizard 1 (total 5) more/Arcane Trickster 2 more/Arcane Archer 4/Arcane Trickster 4 more (total 10)
(Add Magical Knack to make up for losing total 2 caster levels; this build completes Arcane Trickster at level 20.)
1. Vivisectionist Alchemist 1: Bonus feat = Brew Potion (and gives Sneak Attack +1d6; also get limited self-healing ability -- important if your only companion gets KO'd -- and a Mutagen that should be used for pumping Dexterity or Constitution); level 1 character feat = Point Blank Shot
2. Wizard 1: Bonus feat = Scribe Scroll
3. Wizard 2: Level 3 character feat = VMC Rogue I = Trapfinding
4. Wizard 3.
5. Wizard 4: Level 5 character feat = Accomplished Sneak Attacker (gets Sneak Attack to +2d6)
6. Arcane Trickster 1.
7. Arcane Trickster 2. Level 7 character feat = VMC Rogue II = Sneak Attack progression starting +1d6 (+1d6/4 levels after 7, and stacks with Vivisectionist Alchemist to get +2d6 before considering Accomplished Sneak Attacker); retrain the now-superfluous Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat to Precise Shot
8. Arcane Trickster 3.
9. Arcane Trickster 4: Level 9 character feat = Weapon Focus (Longbow)
10. Wizard 5: Bonus feat = Quicken Spell
11. Arcane Trickster 5: Level 11 character feat = VMC Rogue III = Evasion
12. Arcane Trickster 6.
13. Arcane Archer 1: Level 13 character feat = {whatever}
14. Arcane Archer 2.
15. Arcane Archer 3: Level 15 character feat = VMC Rogue IV = Uncanny Dodge
16. Arcane Archer 4.
17. Arcane Trickster 7: Level 17 character feat = {whatever}
18. Arcane Trickster 8.
19. Arcane Trickster 9: Level 19 character feat = VMC Rogue V = Improved Uncanny Dodge
20. Arcane Trickster 10. (Sneak Attack from Vivisectionist Alchemist, VMC Rogue, and Arcane Trickster peaks at +10d6.)
The Heavy Approach
Slayer 3/Wizard 4/Arcane Trickster 2/Arcane Archer 2 or 4/Wizard 1 more (total 5)/Arcane Trickster 2 or 0 more (total 4 or 2)/Arcane Trickster 4 or 6 more (total 8 or 10)
(Instead of Elf, use Slayer to get Longbow proficiency and Medium Armor proficiency and an early boost to BAB, as well as pick up a Slayer Talent, and use Human to get an extra feat -- this forgoes 9th level spells unless the campaign goes Epic; also get Arcane Armor Training to be more defensive; this also does not finish Arcane Trickster unless the campaign goes Epic or only 2 levels of Arcane Archer are taken; Magical Knack is an absolute must.)
1. Slayer 1: Human bonus feat = Point-Blank Shot; level 1 character feat = Precise Shot (and we get Studied Target)
2. Slayer 2: Slayer Talent = Rogue Talent (Weapon Training (Longbow) = Weapon Focus (Longbow))
3. Slayer 3: Level 3 character feat = VMC Rogue I = Trapfinding (and we get Sneak Attack +1d6 from Slayer 3, although VMC Rogue itself isn't adding Sneak Attack dice yet)
4. Wizard 1: Bonus feat = Scribe Scroll
5. Wizard 2: Level 5 character feat = Arcane Armor Training
6. Wizard 3.
7. Wizard 4: Level 7 character feat = VMC Rogue II = Sneak Attack progression starting +1d6 (+1d6/4 levels after 7)
8. Arcane Trickster 1.
9. Arcane Trickster 2: Level 9 character feat = Extra Slayer Talent (Slowing Strike)
10. Arcane Archer 1.
11. Arcane Archer 2: Level 11 character feat = VMC Rogue III = Evasion
12. Arcane Archer 3 or Arcane Trickster 3.
13. Arcane Archer 4 or Arcane Tricskter 4: Level 13 character feat = Arcane Armor Mastery
14. Wizard 5: Bonus feat = Quicken Spell
15. Arcane Trickster 3 or 5: Level 15 character feat = VMC Rogue IV = Uncanny Dodge
16. Arcane Trickster 4 or 6.
17. Arcane Trickster 5 or 7: Level 17 character feat = {whatever}
18. Arcane Trickster 6 or 8.
19. Arcane Trickster 7 or 9: Level 19 character feat = VMC Rogue V = Improved Uncanny Dodge
20. Arcane Trickster 8 or 10. (Sneak Attack from Slayer, VMC Rogue, and Arcane Trickster peaks at +9d6 or +10d6.)
Arcanist and a melee divine full-caster works well, something akin to a reach cleric for instance. Make sure they have some form of summon spell and it should be okay. The arcanist has a huge amount of day-to-day utility and the cleric has plenty of condition removal and buffs for himself and the summons. Should be decent.
Druid (& animal companion) and paladin.
Druids are super versatile and can increase action economy with animal companion and summoned beasties.
Paladins are great tanks and can self-heal and be the face.
Both can use CLW wands, too.
Not convinced that Arcane Archer has the best synergy with Arcane Trickster
Imbue Arrow + Surprise Spells is nice combination for blasting (Sneak Attack on the arrow damage, plus Sneak Attack on the area damage from the Imbued spell); hit chance is even reasonable with heroism up (and possibly a Quickened true strike). It's tough to get both while keeping 9th-level spells or hurting versatility in other ways, though.
Other than this synergy (which, granted, is realized late), Imbue Arrow is just incredibly useful for the battlefield control aspect.
Re: Arcane Armor Training
Arcane Armor Training is purely about maintaining a reasonable AC at an affordable WBL hit and/or spell slot use until 11th-13th level; the swift action is not in great demand until that point of the character progression (when Quicken Spell becomes a great benefit) and some of the better magic items become affordable. A mithral chain shirt is cheap at 1,100gp and can be inexpensively enhanced to +1 or +2 for better protection than mage armor (other than against incorporeal foes); paired with a mithral buckler (enhanced throughout the character's advancement), the character's base AC will be higher than the standard "squishy" wizard (very important with only two PCs). Bullet shield gives a substantial deflection bonus against ranged attacks and lasts 10 min/level, as well. Not quite a tank, but more survivable.
Re: VMC rogue
I'd much rather dip one or two levels than lose 5 feats with this character (six, with needing Accomplished Sneak Attacker). Especially with the arcane archer requirements. Yes, I'm trading some caster progression, but 1) the character gets the Imbue Spell + Surprise Spells combo at 18th character level (and can pull off all of the battlefield control Imbue arrow tricks from 14th character level on), 2) has a slightly better BAB (ends with +12; effectively a +14 with heroism up, which is about the same as a straight rogue), and 3) still gains 9th-level spells.
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With only two member yu must try to cover every role.
I think the best is a Sorcerer with abyssal bloodline and a separatist clerich with nature and void domain.
That way you have two powerfull summons and a animal companion to make the frontline and two good casters back.
That way you cover almost every spell, wich gives you a lot of versatility and the companion will help the team more that you think.
You can swap sorcerer for wizzard, and if you dont want a cleric, a druid/ oracle of nature will work.
The problem is surviving till level 5 for boon companion for the cleric. Casters are pretty meh to play on resource management early. The only 9th level castibg classes that get animal companions out of the box are sylvan sorcerers, oracles and druids. Spontaneous casters have less versatility?
If you are willing to abandon the various bonus feats, wizards could go with spirit binder.
This gives their familiar the ability to pick a different class to base its BAB and saves off of. Also, the lost feats are given as slots for the familiar to pick feats with.
Go with a mauler familiar, and spend a feat from the wizard to get it +2 hp per level. It...is still fairly squishy, but it can have full BAB and str bonuses. You could probably build something basic with this.
A much better deal if you can go with improved familiars (can't get the HP, but it can still get other cool stuff). I recommend an earth elemental- it comes with some basic melee feats, and it can have simple weapon proficiency if it has a humanoid form. That, and its rather large starting natural armor means it can deal with squishiness and do well in melee. I could probably pull off a basic reach build by level 5.
By the way, while reading a new Fighter guide that is being developed, I stumbled on the fact that if you do use Arcane Armor Training/Mastery, AND you manage to get hold of a Stamina pool, you can spend 1 Stamina to use these as a Free Action instead of a Swift Action, and with Arcane Armor Mastery, you can spend Stamina equal to the level of the spell to ignore all arcane spell failure chance. So these feats have conditionally become not quite as bad as they were, although they still aren't great (but at least now they are usable in certain builds if you are stuck with them).
By the way, while reading a new Fighter guide that is being developed, I stumbled on the fact that if you do use Arcane Armor Training/Mastery, AND you manage to get hold of a Stamina pool, you can spend 1 Stamina to use these as a Free Action instead of a Swift Action, and with Arcane Armor Mastery, you can spend Stamina equal to the level of the spell to ignore all arcane spell failure chance. So these feats have conditionally become not quite as bad as they were, although they still aren't great (but at least now they are usable in certain builds if you are stuck with them).
I've always seen Arcane Armor Training as perfectly functional, if not ideal. It's one feat to get within 1 AC of a mithral breastplate at the cost of a swift action only on rounds that a character casts a spell. If a character has the ability to spam Shield, then that crossed with a mithral kikko is pseudo-full-plate. Arcane Armor Mastery also opens up Celestial Plate Armor. It's not something pure spellcasters are going to pick up, but that's not really it's purpose.
Summoner/Druid is my answer as well. That gives you both divine and arcane casting, two pets for maximum action economy, and overall a lot of power. It's notably quite strong from level 1-20, and although the Summoner falls behind the true 9-level arcane casters at higher levels the other advantages make up for it.
I've always seen Arcane Armor Training as perfectly functional, if not ideal. It's one feat to get within 1 AC of a mithral breastplate at the cost of a swift action only on rounds that a character casts a spell. If a character has the ability to spam Shield, then that crossed with a mithral kikko is pseudo-full-plate. Arcane Armor Mastery also opens up Celestial Plate Armor. It's not something pure spellcasters are going to pick up, but that's not really it's purpose.By the way, while reading a new Fighter guide that is being developed, I stumbled on the fact that if you do use Arcane Armor Training/Mastery, AND you manage to get hold of a Stamina pool, you can spend 1 Stamina to use these as a Free Action instead of a Swift Action, and with Arcane Armor Mastery, you can spend Stamina equal to the level of the spell to ignore all arcane spell failure chance. So these feats have conditionally become not quite as bad as they were, although they still aren't great (but at least now they are usable in certain builds if you are stuck with them).
Problem with Arcane Armor Training/Mastery is that if you need to use your Swift Action for something else, you are out of luck, except in the case where that something else is cast a Quickened or otherwise Swift Action spell, in which case you may be able to add Still Spell to it (assuming that you have enough spell levels or have one of the metamagic feats on a rod and a free hand or tail to hold it). Still very much short of ideal -- several varieties of 6/9 spellcasters (including Magus) have good reasons for having their own class features to suppress armor-induced arcane spell failure.
Problem with Arcane Armor Training/Mastery is that if you need to use your Swift Action for something else, you are out of luck, except in the case where that something else is cast a Quickened or otherwise Swift Action spell, in which case you may be able to add Still Spell to it (assuming that you have enough spell levels or have one of the metamagic feats on a rod and a free hand or tail to hold it). Still very much short of ideal -- several varieties of 6/9 spellcasters (including Magus) have good reasons for having their own class features to suppress armor-induced arcane spell failure.
It's definitely not ideal, but it has a huge benefit on something like a strength-based Eldritch Knight or Dragon Disciple, where the alternative is a flat 4AC or some very costly, very light armor. It's possible to end up with Celestial Plate Armor if one is so inclined.
There have been times when I've been a in a two person party because the others couldn't make the session. I was playing a melee cleric and the other character was a conjuration wizard who was also strong with skills. That combination seemed to work well, although I think Dasrak is right in that a summoner and druid would be a stronger combination because we had to summon our tanks, theirs were already there.
This thread has inspired me to create a thread about the smallest party that can complete an AP.
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Let's look at some of the most successful dynamic duos of fantasy literature:
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser: Fafhrd is kind of a Skald and the Mouser is sort of an Arcane Trickster. Or just play them as Barbarian and Rouge with a couple of level dips in Bard and Wizard.
Elric and Moonglum: Elf Black Blade Magus and Human Swashbuckler
Aahz and Skeeve: Not sure what class a de-powered demonic wizard counts as. I'd say he's a Teifling Occultist and Skeeve is a Human Wizard or Sorcerer.
Fred & George Weasly: Pair of Wizards with a sense of humor.
Raistlin & Caramon: The classic combo of Wizard and Fighter.
PAthfinder is all about surviving the first few levels.
Master Summoner/Druid or Master Summoner/hangover+evangelist cleric.
The first team deals better with dungeon hazards and the second team breaks more challenging combat encounters. Both teams really hit stride around level 3.
Reasons for a master summoner over other classes:
1.) Comes with a free and very talented thief.
2.) Can nova strike with summons, which is arguably the most powerful vanilla play in Pathfinder, certainly at low level.
3.) Great spells.
4.) Acceptable stats.
5.) Mass summons remove the need for any healing.
6.) Can heal.
7.) Breaks action economy in very few rounds.
Reasons for druid:
1.) Arguably the toughest low level full caster.
2.) Spinosaurus.
3.) Battlefield control is top notch in natural environments.
4.) Full caster.
Reasons for H/E cleric:
1.) Inspire courage.
2.) Channel daze is an encounter wrecker.
3.) Full caster.
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Reach Evangelist Cleric w/ Animal Companion and sacred summoning
With
Occultist Arcanist or Summoner
Standard action summon is Key to this team. The buffs, heals, and some Reach damage comes from the Cleric. Control comes from the Arcane Classes. The Companions+summons will take the front lines. A wand of Mount can summon a pony to walk out in front of the group and "Disarm" traps the hard way. Detect Magic+dispel magics will handle magical traps. A Decent Cha on the Occultist or the Summoner can play face. Ranged combat can be handled with Spellcasting.
I'd think a paladin/sorcerer combo would be tough to beat. Paladins are nearly un-killable and with a sorcerer covering blast spells, control, and buffing, the pair would be tough to deal with.
I think Animal/Feather Domain Cleric and Summoner is a good combo.
Super perception, 2 frontliners, Cleric can build tanky and strong with a long spear to support frontliners, Summoner can focus on buffs and control.
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I think Animal/Feather Domain Cleric and Summoner is a good combo.
Super perception, 2 frontliners, Cleric can build tanky and strong with a long spear to support frontliners, Summoner can focus on buffs and control.
Reason I like Evangelist is the bardic performance. One of the Best buffs in the game. Only buff the Arcane needs to bring is haste.
So many summons and companions being performed and hasted. It's pretty dominate. Just slow cause summoning can bog play. But 2 players shouldn't mind big turns each.
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Sorcerer dipping 2 levels of Paladin, a Figment familiar for a quickly returning Disable Device option (with the Eidolons Skilled evolution), and a Battle Oracle with the Animal Ally chain dipping 2 levels of hunter (start with a Wolf and switch to Warcat once you have Hunter levels). You have a fully leveled Animal Companion, an expendable trap disarmer who comes back every day if it dies, 9th level Arcane and Divine spells eventually, tons of useful abilities and both characters are decent in regards to saves and Hps.
A Bard and a Rogue. I watched Road to El Dorado the other night, worked out okay for those two.
Bloodrager - Reach Build + Witch for Debuffing and 9 levels of spellcasting