Most Bizarre Multiclass Combinations?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


So, while looking at Zenith's Guide to Ninja build, I was greatly surprised to see that the two best classes to multiclass with a ninja is the paladin-due to the full BAB, self healing, bonus to saves, and how devastating Smite Evil and Sneak Attack can be against evil targets.

That got me thinking-what are the most surprising multiclass combinations that you guys have either read about or have actually played? Sure, it makes sense for most melee classes to stack with dips into fighter, due to the bonus feats, but I'm talking about the ones that, while they work statistically well, seem pretty odd in terms of thematics. The ninja/paladin multiclass build is just the biggest example I've found.


I saw one build that was fighter into shadowdancer, using a two handed weapon. That's certainly odd.

Then of course there's any kobold (or human using racial heritage) using scaled disciple to go divine caster into dragon disciple.


KoolKobold wrote:
So, while looking at Zenith's Guide to Ninja build, I was greatly surprised to see that the two best classes to multiclass with a ninja is the paladin-due to the full BAB, self healing, bonus to saves, and how devastating Smite Evil and Sneak

You mentioned paladin/ninja (which is a combo I've ALWAYS wanted to play, because Batman), but what is the [i]other[i/] class you were talking about?


I like bard paladin a lot. A Glaive-wielding arcane duelist of Shelyn who loved to paint was one of my favorite characters I ever played.


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4 levels of Agathiel Vigilante followed by Id Rager or Rageshaper Bloodrager. I haven't had the chance to play it, but playing what is essentially a really angry awakened dire badger that is also on fire sounds great.


Shane LeRose wrote:
KoolKobold wrote:
So, while looking at Zenith's Guide to Ninja build, I was greatly surprised to see that the two best classes to multiclass with a ninja is the paladin-due to the full BAB, self healing, bonus to saves, and how devastating Smite Evil and Sneak
You mentioned paladin/ninja (which is a combo I've ALWAYS wanted to play, because Batman), but what is the [i]other[i/] class you were talking about?

The other class mentioned was the fighter, which makes sense-full BAB and a bonus feat at 1st level and every 2nd level.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Spastic Puma wrote:
I like bard paladin a lot. A Glaive-wielding arcane duelist of Shelyn who loved to paint was one of my favorite characters I ever played.

I've wanted to do something like that as well, or a bard/cleric but those don't mix very well.


I'm currently working on a semi-legal version of this which is a kitsune Slayer 2/Unarmed Fighter 1/Master of Many Styles + Kata Master Monk 2 tiny fox that has stupidly good stats at level 5.


bloodrager paladin.


Celestial blood rager and paladin don't seem to hard to picture together. Monk/ druid is a proposed build I have heard that strikes me as odd.

Dark Archive

I've played a rogue/barbarian/cavalier focused on intimidate. Being able to demoralize everyone on the battlefield is fun, though a bit overpowered. Mostly because it always worked due to optimization shenanigans...


The most absurd combinations I encountered actually were done with 3.0 material. Like rogue + barbarian (calculating and hotheaded in one character), paladin + antipaladin (just for double Cha bonus on saves) or bard + red dragon disciple + pale master (a singing half-undead with dragon blood... err, ok).

In Pathfinder I can't remember any player / fellow player playing a class combination, actually. The rather inexperienced GMs did forbid it outright, and at the others the players (including me) didn't dive into this additional complexity. Looking through my (not yet played) builds, the weirdest thing is probably a 'bastard' build, taking its power from a lot of dipping and feats emulating class abilities (e.g. Eldritch Heritage or Amateur Swashbuckler). I never finished it because of choice paralysis...

Shadow Lodge

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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

I've got a (Flowing) Monk/ (Staff) Magus 4/x that works really well.

The theory was that I would avoid the usual Monk problem -- great defense, but no reason for the opponent to ever attack -- by getting some offense from the Magus. In practice she has has turned out to be an exceptional utility caster and battlefield controller. She's specced for Reposition, but can put together decent damage. But as a Flowing Monk, she's really a counter-puncher -- her big thing comes online when you swing at her (or an adjacent ally).

Two weird synergies:
Staff is a monk weapon, so you can flurry with it
There is a magus arcana that lets you combine your arcane pool and your ki pool.

There was a lot of treading water at lower levels, but it really came online at 8, and has been a lot of fun since then.


Java Man wrote:
Celestial blood rager and paladin don't seem to hard to picture together. Monk/ druid is a proposed build I have heard that strikes me as odd.

I have the framework for that one. Druid 2/MoMS1/druid X. Go snake style. Be a snake (or a snake shaped elemental).

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

I'm playing a paladin 2/sorcerer X that I enjoy. Saves for daaays.


A Paladin/Skald would be a very effective combination. You get all the paladins abilities and a form of rage that you can share. You also can use medium armor and still cast arcane spells.


I have seen a barbarian/ninja/skald that actually worked well, somehow.


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Samurai/oracle


The Urban Barbarian can work well with dex based classes since it raise dex with controlled rage, which has less limitations than normal rage.

Urban Barbarian / unchained rogue would work well, they have many class abilities in common: trap sense and danger sense seem to stack (dodge bonuses), uncanny dodge / improved UD.

I've played a halfling barbarian / rogue, that was str based mounted combat. Had very generous rolling method, it worked OK, I felt middle of the pack in effectiveness.

Urban barbarian / swashbuckler would be ok.


berserker444 wrote:
Samurai/oracle

I wanted to make a nature oracle/hussar cavalier into a mammoth rider and eventually have a huge wolf. It should be smart enough to get the good feats.

Sczarni

These are all nice, I guess. But everyman should know of my favorite: "Drinking, Raging and Smiting!" Just grab yourself a respectable class, like the Paladin. Then splash some alchemist levels, just enough to grab the Beastmorpher bonus. Alchemist first due to the longer duration on mutagen stuff. Then a quad of levels in Blood Rager abyssal, to be large size while you rage and you can even fast heal as early as level 2. Great stuff.

And this combination is all PFS legal, so you too can rock your way past 30 strength before the high levels and have amazing saves, and turn into a large sized smiting machine if you so wanted. And you can roleplay them as the Paladin who needs more strength to save more people, and the others get to watch you slowly be corrupted by power's allure, a neat and tidy way of retiring your character when PFS stops their progress or when you feel like talking to your DM about your character possibly being a villain. Or just grab more power on your way to being the strongest of heroes.


Strength-based Scarred Rager Barbarian/ Ninja. A scarred Rager that only rages while attacking is only fatigued until the start of their next turn. So you can repeatedly appear out of the shadows with raging greatsword sneak attacks, and then vanish a few seconds later with Vanishing Trick like nothing happened.


Druid/rogue, done it several times, awesome in a different way every time, to much fun (halfling for the last one, the stuff she could do with Bluff and a house plant!)


Druid 4 + Shaping Focus with any class that would benefit from being a medium size elemental with stat bonuses, since by Pathfinder polymorph rules there's nothing stopping a humanoid elemental-shaped character from wielding a weapon. Unchained Rogue as an air elemental is pretty awesome, as is Monk, Swashbuckler, etc.


Unarmed Fighter 1\Enlightened Paladin 2\Master of Many Styles + Qigong Monk 2\Enlightened Paladin X with a guided amulet of mighty fists for the one-punch build.


BadBird wrote:
Strength-based Scarred Rager Barbarian/ Ninja. A scarred Rager that only rages while attacking is only fatigued until the start of their next turn. So you can repeatedly appear out of the shadows with raging greatsword sneak attacks, and then vanish a few seconds later with Vanishing Trick like nothing happened.

Wait, how are you doing this with a Scarred Rager?

Edit: Oh, wait, I think I got it. Huh. That's pretty cool.


We were playing Savage Tide AP using Pathfinder rules. Oddly I was the only multiclass character with a half-elven Druid/Barbarian.

The combination of shape-shifting and rage was pretty funny to play...especially in shark or squid form.


GM_Beernorg wrote:
Druid/rogue, done it several times, awesome in a different way every time, to much fun (halfling for the last one, the stuff she could do with Bluff and a house plant!)

Druids are the ultimate thieves and assassins.

Who expects the cat to be the thief? Who expects that the blue jay on their balcony will suddenly sprout a big beefy arm holding a dagger?

It is time to go eco-terrorist. Make sure the kings know the price for damaging the forests.


8 levels of Strength Patron Synergist Witch with melee. With Strength Patron a Witch can use Divine Favor and Heroism for a huge combat bonus. With Synergist and Improved Familiar, a Witch can get fly, pounce and a bonus natural attack.


I once had a player start out as inquisitor - 7 levels, then take 2 levels of rogue, followed by 2 levels in fighter, then he started to level in cleric.

He claimed his build was obvious once you thought about it. I still have not figured it out. Though he was exceptionally good at rolling critical successes at just the right to come out looking fantastic and showing up the rest of the party. So maybe I'm just too blind to see the awesomeness.

Sovereign Court

For my group that did Emerald Spire last year, I made a character that had 1 level of Fighter, 1 level of Cleric (Crusader archetype), 1 level of Shaman (Possessed Shaman archetype, Life Spirit), and the rest of the levels in Inquisitor (Sanctified Slayer archetype).

She was an attempt to build a character entirely around using Channel Smite to deal 1 big attack per round in combat. (I've always wanted to find a way to use Channel Energy in combat effectively, but it just doesn't scale well in Pathfinder) She worshiped Gorum, so she mainly channeled Negative Energy to damage living creatures, but the level of Shaman gave her Channel Positive Energy, as well. Took Channel Scourge to allow her Inquisitor levels to stack with all other classes for progression of Channel Energy. By 3rd level, she had Greater Weapon of the Chosen so she could roll 2d20s and take the highest when making only a single attack per round. (this made up for her dismally low BAB--only +6 at 10th level) She had Power Attack, Vital Strike, Bane, Sneak Attack, Studied Target, Rage from the Rage subdomain, Channel Viciousness to make all allies attacks Vicious (the Aldori Swordlord HATED that 'cuz he couldn't avoid it), and some teamwork feats.

It ended up being viable and worked, but it was a mess to plan out and play and had way too many things that required Swift Actions to initiate. It wasn't any better at dealing damage than any other builds that the rest of the party had--and couldn't compete with the Bloodrager/Dragon Disciple in the party. I would get 1 hit per round for around 80 dmg, but he would pump out 3 hits for well over 100 pts in total. It didn't help that I announced the planned build before everyone else, but EVERYONE built melee characters for the campaign. So, we were all fighting for position in combat.

Dark Archive

BadBird wrote:
Strength-based Scarred Rager Barbarian/ Ninja. A scarred Rager that only rages while attacking is only fatigued until the start of their next turn. So you can repeatedly appear out of the shadows with raging greatsword sneak attacks, and then vanish a few seconds later with Vanishing Trick like nothing happened.

That sounds like it would be a fairly suitable horror-movie slasher build, right there. Coldly berserk, and striking from the shadows.

Neat!


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Gunslinger / Druid.

My Emerald Spire character. I had three requirements: Musket, Bear and Dwarf, and as early as possible. There are many tricks to get animal companion, but they tend to get it late, so my choices were hunter or druid. The druid archetype Nature Fang traded wild shape for slayer abilities, which in turn allowed taking ranger combat style for extra feats that ranged combat always needs. Hunter would have had less feats so I chose druid.

It worked out pretty well. Early levels the bear acted as a tank, later I got undersized mount to ride the bear, which helped greatly in getting to the optimal position. The druid spells were just used for long buffs for mobility and protection. First just for speed, then riding a bear along the walls and ceilings, and finally with Air Walk through the air.


Currently playing a rogue 2 /inquisitor 2 in Carrion Crown that works well as a great skill monkey.
Plus divine spells, rogue talents, sneak attacks, evasion, good saves, judgment, cunning initiative, teamwork feats...

Silver Crusade

RipfangOmen wrote:
BadBird wrote:
Strength-based Scarred Rager Barbarian/ Ninja. A scarred Rager that only rages while attacking is only fatigued until the start of their next turn. So you can repeatedly appear out of the shadows with raging greatsword sneak attacks, and then vanish a few seconds later with Vanishing Trick like nothing happened.

Wait, how are you doing this with a Scarred Rager?

Edit: Oh, wait, I think I got it. Huh. That's pretty cool.

How does this work? I know you can end a rage as a free action, so I assume start rage before your attack, end rage after attack. But then you've spent one round of rage, you are fatigued normally for two rounds (with no save), Scarred Rager reduces that to one round and that means until the end of your next turn, not till the start of your next turn. Right?


My 3.5 barbarian/bard/fighter/ranger/psychic warrior.


supervillan wrote:
How does this work? I know you can end a rage as a free action, so I assume start rage before your attack, end rage after attack. But then you've spent one round of rage, you are fatigued normally for two rounds (with no save), Scarred Rager reduces that to one round and that means until the end of your next turn, not till the start of your next turn. Right?
PRD wrote:
When the rules refer to a "full round", they usually mean a span of time from a particular initiative count in one round to the same initiative count in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.

Scarred Rager can do some pretty fun stuff...

Silver Crusade

BadBird wrote:
supervillan wrote:
How does this work? I know you can end a rage as a free action, so I assume start rage before your attack, end rage after attack. But then you've spent one round of rage, you are fatigued normally for two rounds (with no save), Scarred Rager reduces that to one round and that means until the end of your next turn, not till the start of your next turn. Right?
PRD wrote:
When the rules refer to a "full round", they usually mean a span of time from a particular initiative count in one round to the same initiative count in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.
Scarred Rager can do some pretty fun stuff...

Ouch. Nice!


Slayer/occultist is a fun combo, slayers use dex and int, and occultists really only use int. You have every skill aside from ride as class skills and you get decent offensive power from both classes.

Dark Archive

I played a Half-Giant Barbarian 1/Psychic Warrior 1 once. He could manifest Expand at will (While psionically focused) Best character ever till I found something better.

The Barbarian is still in for the rage. Add a level of Alchemist for the Mutagen. One level of Shifter from Spheres of Power with the Alteration Sphere and the Size Change Talent.

Free action to rage + move action to become large + standard action to use mutagen = +12 to Str, -2 to Dex, +6 to Con, -2 to Int, +2 on Will saves, etc. At level 3...

Scarab Sages

Paladin/Shadowdancer is a favorite of mine. Nothing like a paladin hanging out with a lawful good undead buddy.

Scarab Sages

Simeon wrote:
Slayer/occultist is a fun combo, slayers use dex and int, and occultists really only use int. You have every skill aside from ride as class skills and you get decent offensive power from both classes.

Slayer really doesn't need int for anything. No class features except master slayer play off it, and neither do most talents. it only gives skill points, which it doesn't need with 6 ranks. It's a useable multiclass, but slayers need Str, Dex, and con more than int.


Slayer multiclass can be a real drag, since Studied Target remains a move action until level 7. A dip isn't that big a deal, but delaying Study by multiple levels is just aggravating.

Scarab Sages

BadBird wrote:
Slayer multiclass can be a real drag, since Studied Target remains a move action until level 7. A dip isn't that big a deal, but delaying Study by multiple levels is just aggravating.

Anything you get Sneak Attack dice on triggers Study though. So if you can make a Feint build or Darkness build you get the Study on subsequent attacks for free.


Belabras wrote:
BadBird wrote:
Slayer multiclass can be a real drag, since Studied Target remains a move action until level 7. A dip isn't that big a deal, but delaying Study by multiple levels is just aggravating.
Anything you get Sneak Attack dice on triggers Study though. So if you can make a Feint build or Darkness build you get the Study on subsequent attacks for free.

True, but it's nowhere near as handy as being able to just activate at will. Requiring a sneak attack before you can activate your primary combat buff hurts. On a build that focused on sneak dice, like taking Snakebite Striker Brawler up to 3 for move/feint, I could see it working fairly smoothly.


I have a Bramble Brewer Alchemist multiclass with Savage Technologist Barbarian so I have absolutely insane amounts of natural armor/AC. The Alchemist/Barbarian multiclass also leads to an insane Strength score, I'm amazed at how well it clicks together.


Synthesist / Kensai

I was building Spiral, worked out fairly well.

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