Two-Handing Classes


Advice


Which of the following classes would you say are the strongest for using a one-handed weapon in two-hands (as a two-handed weapon) and why?
- Unchained Barbarian
- Fighter
- Swashbuckler
- Ranger
- (Other non-full BAB class)

(The GM is sticking to PFS legal content, with the exception of not being able to play the "chained" variants of any of the unchained classes, PFS legal archetypes for them are fine though. I'm basically looking to play a light* armor wearer, fairly optimised toward hitting hard - but also being able to pass saves and stay up, skill points and utility are a welcome bonus.) (*Maybe medium, if I pick up endurance and/or get movespeed.)


For pure damage on full-attack?

Best is the fighter. Weapon Trainig + Gloves of Dueling outpace the damage bonus of the unchained barb by mid-levels. And you get Greater Weapon Specialization for another +4 Damage. For single attacks, you have enough feats to spare to get the vital strike chain and you could go with the two-handed fighter archetype for even more damage.

Ranger is bad unless you're fighting your favorite enemy. And even than a fighter will deal potentially more damage.

The UnBarb can still be as powerful as the fighter, simply because of rage powers. It's hard to beat pounce for a melee character.

Both Ranger and Barb are also way better for out-of-combat stuff, of course.

I have almost no knowledge about the Swashbuckler, so I can't comment there.


Blave wrote:

Ranger is bad unless you're fighting your favorite enemy. And even than a fighter will deal potentially more damage.

The UnBarb can still be as powerful as the fighter, simply because of rage powers. It's hard to beat pounce for a melee character.

Both Ranger and Barb are also way better for out-of-combat stuff, of course.

I have almost no knowledge about the Swashbuckler, so I can't comment there.

Shame about the ranger, the skills seemed tempting.

When I looked over the UnBarb I didnt think it was too great given that its rage doesnt seem to benefit two handers as much (no more STR bonus during rage, only static +2), have I overlooked something about the class?


Two-Hander you say? well... have you heard of the Titan fighter and Titan Mauler Archetypes? ever wanted to wield a sword three times the size of you? Crush someone with an uprooted tree? Check em' out!


two handed fighter get x2 str per attack and "keeps" weapon training so they can use gloves of dueling they also get +4 power attack instead of +3 power attack eventually


For pure numbers (attack and damage) the fighter wins every day of the week.

Ironically, the barb's power is more suble. You Get Uncanny dodge, Danger Sense and Damage Reduction. And you can greatly customize your fighting style with rage powers.

Greater Beast Totem grants Pounce, which increses your number of full-attacks. Beast Totem + Guarded Stance will give you great AC, Come and Get Me offers a huge risk, huge reward style of combat. Superstition and the rage will save bonus make you more resilient to spells and special attacks. And so on.


Blave wrote:
For pure numbers (attack and damage) the fighter wins every day of the weak.

*week

Heh, I'm glad to hear that though, in my googling i keep coming across threads calling the fighter underpowered, that's my main reason for making this thread to gauge people's opinions. I guess I'll have to also consider the UnBarb though, seems I've overlooked a fair bit of their potential.


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There's more full-BAB classes than that and personally I'd go for a bloodrager. A one-handed weapon used in two hands is perfect for an occasional spellcaster, bloodrage is a solid buff even before adding bloodline powers and if you're worried about saves then go with the Destined bloodline (or maybe Prowler at World's End). Spells add utility and defence usually.

Fighters are very much one-trick ponies. They can kill things, or be the best at some combat maneuver, but utility is not their thing and their means of getting extra skill points comes in late. In light armor they're not the best at staying up either.


Swashbuckler currently doesn't have anything going for it to use two-handed weapons unless the new Bladed Brush feat I keep hearing about (which is too new to be on any legal online resource) adds something usable. I'd like to see an Elven Swashbuckler archetype added that would be able to make optimal use of Finessable two-handed Elven weapons, but currently no such thing exists (Swashbuckler Finesse requires a light or one-handed Piercing weapon, although archetypes can change this); the closest thing is Unchained Rogue with Finesse Training: both free Weapon Finesse and (a bit later) Dexterity-to-Damage class features to use with a chosen Finessable weapon, plus Sneak Attack damage if you can manage to set it up. Unchained Rogue's Finesse Training doesn't care what handedness a weapon has, as long as it is usable with Weapon Finesse and you are proficient with it.

A Halfling (do NOT trade out Halfling Luck, and be sure to get the Halfling version of the Helpful trait) Unchained Rogue with Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Elven Branched Spear), choosing Elven Branched Spear for Finesse Training at 3rd level, and then going into the Halfling Opportunist prestige class at 6th level, will get really powerful at 10th level, when you get the capstone of this 5 level prestige class and ALL of your Attacks of Opportunity become Sneak Attacks, even if your targets are not flat-footed, dexterity-denied, or flanked. However, this requires Pathfinder Unchained fractional base bonus progression to work well, or you will have Base Attack Bonus only +6, thus defeating part of the purpose of using Elven Branched Spear (non-magical +2 on all Attacks of Opportunity).

Moving beyond inherently Dexterity-based options, if you are into damage dealing and are up against a lot of Evil enemies, a Paladin is nice to have. If your enemies are more varied, a Cavalier is nice to have (for Challenge and Tactician).

Skald is nice to have for giving Barbarian Rage Powers to potentially all allies, and unlike Bard gets full martial weapon proficiency for free -- you won't be doing the most damage yourself, but you will turn your party into monsters, with two-handed weapons or otherwise.

Magus would be good (for Spell Combat + Spellstrike), except that no archetype currently exists that works well with two-handed weapons -- you need a free hand to use Spellstrike, and the very few archetypes that make exceptions for this either make specific exceptions only for things other than two-handed weapons, or only give you an exception very late (Mindblade). This is, of course, barring something like being a Kasatha (4 arms, but 20 RP race, so will probably not be allowed in most tables) or taking a dip in Alchemist to get an extra arm (2 levels of spellcasting progression delay -- yuck, even with Magical Knack to keep caster level up). However, without these tricks, you can still eventually cast Alter Self and later Monstrous Physique on yourself to assume a multi-armed form so that you have a free hand even when using a two-handed weapon.

Edit: Bloodrager could be a good alternative to a two-handed Magus.

Properly built Monks (Unchained for full base attack bonus and the ability to get Flying Kick at 5th level for semi-Pounce) could put out some serious damage; they have a few two-handed weapons to choose from (look for two-handed Monk weapons in the Eastern Weapons section).

Alchemists can buff themselves to do some serious damage despite being 3/4 BAB, and if you don't want to invest in Mad Bombing, you have the option to go Vivisectionist to get full-progression Sneak Attack.

For doing stuff other than damage, more options open up. Depending upon the enemies you will face most, Improved Trip/Greater Trip can become good to stick on your Attacks of Opportunity while you use your normal actions to do other stuff -- look up Reach Cleric, but applying Reach Cleric tactics to other classes is certainly possible. If opponents' CMD values are going to get ridiculously high (but they aren't usually getting outright immunity to trip), check out Lore Warden Fighter to get additional bonuses on your CMB (and don't stack with an archetype that trades out Weapon Training, not just to keep the option for the awesome Advanced Weapon Training abilities, but also because you will need every bonus you can get). In this case, you will be attacking or doing combat maneuvers on your regular actions; your attacks won't do the most damage, but you will be messing up your enemies. As a Lore Warden Fighter you still get a full set of Bonus Feats, so you could specialize in more than one type of Combat Maneuver and do ones like Trip or Disarm that can replace an attack on your Attacks of Opportunity, and do others like Dirty Trick (that in most cases need actual actions) on your regular actions.


SillyString wrote:
Blave wrote:
For pure numbers (attack and damage) the fighter wins every day of the weak.

*week

Heh, I'm glad to hear that though, in my googling i keep coming across threads calling the fighter underpowered, that's my main reason for making this thread to gauge people's opinions. I guess I'll have to also consider the UnBarb though, seems I've overlooked a fair bit of their potential.

the fighter may be the best at dishing out damage but thats pretty much all they can do and not much else even with some of the "fixes" out there they are still at the bottom of the t5 list


Lady-J wrote:
the fighter may be the best at dishing out damage but thats pretty much all they can do and not much else even with some of the "fixes" out there they are still at the bottom of the t5 list

True. If you want to do pretty much anything outside combat, Fighter is the wrong class.

However, for physical damage, fighter is the most reliable class you can be. Other classes beat the fighter in specific situations but fall apart quickly once those requirements are not met. A barb or bloodrager outside rage (ray of exhaustion, anyone?), a paladin fighting anything not-evil, a ranger fighting non-favored enemies and so on.

The fighter, on the other hand, just keeps going and going and going. No requirements needed, no resources spent even after a dozen fights per day.


@avr: Ah, you noticed I left bloodrager off. I would have certainly considered it as it's one of my favorite classes, and the only reason I'm not is that my last character was a bloodrager, I wholly agree with you though, would have been a good choice!

@UnArcaneElection: Wow, that's a pretty comprehensive breakdown of non-full BAB melee, the two things that stand out to me here (mainly because i hate halflings, dont judge me.) are the magus -if I wanted to ditch wielding in two hands, but lets sideline that because its a little off topic (always cool though, and i could alternate turns were I one-hand and turns when I two-hand), and Bladed Brush, which is something I'd missed completely and that's pretty snazzy indeed, even if it's not a true one-handed being used as a two-handed, it's still very interesting indeed. In regard to the non-full BAB, i'm concerned I wouldn't be able to use power attack as frequently (to make the most of two handing) without the BAB to compensate, is this unfounded?

Lady-J wrote:
the fighter may be the best at dishing out damage but thats pretty much all they can do and not much else even with some of the "fixes" out there they are still at the bottom of the t5 list

Is the t5 list a reference to the 5 classes that I mentioned in my first post, a typo and you meant to just say "bottom of the list" or a reference to an actual list that I am unaware of and would probably like to see? :)


JaronK's tier list is what Lady-J's referencing I think. It's a fairly idiosyncratic way of rating the flexibility and possible power of classes but it's got currency in some places, especially the giantitp forums.

D&D 3.5 tier list

The top result searching for Pathfinder tier list


SillyString wrote:
Lady-J wrote:
the fighter may be the best at dishing out damage but thats pretty much all they can do and not much else even with some of the "fixes" out there they are still at the bottom of the t5 list
Is the t5 list a reference to the 5 classes that I mentioned in my first post, a typo and you meant to just say "bottom of the list" or a reference to an actual list that I am unaware of and would probably like to see? :)

the teir system is a clasification system for the player character classes were t1 are the most powerful/useful and t5 are the least powerful/useful wizard ranks close to if not 1 on the teir 1 list while fighter ranks last on the t5 list


avr wrote:

JaronK's tier list is what Lady-J's referencing I think. It's a fairly idiosyncratic way of rating the flexibility and possible power of classes but it's got currency in some places, especially the giantitp forums.

D&D 3.5 tier list

The top result searching for Pathfinder tier list

Cool, I should have known casters would be sitting atop any tier lists, if I was smarter and had more patience for juggling spell lists, picking spells and spells per day I'd probably play them more often.

PS: Is there an up-to-date version of this? 2014 is a long time ago.


There are numerous Tier-Lists for all classes. Some don't even go to Tier 5.

Basically, a bottom tier class is a class that can do either nothing good at, or just one single thing. For the fighter, it's fighting.

The higher Tier get better at more different things with more versatility, with Tier 1 being pretty much exklusive to Wizards (and I guess Arcanists). Some lists also add Cleric and/or Druid to the first tier.

However, the definitions of the tiers and opinions on where which class belongs vary greatly.

Edit: Toooooo slooooooowww. :)


Hmm, just a thought: Could a magus use Bladed Brush to use all his spell combat / spellstrike stuff?

Unless i've overlooked anything, i'm assuming yes, which is pretty darn cool.

Silver Crusade

That's a point of contention atm.


Rysky wrote:
That's a point of contention atm.

Ah yes, the old is it "A" for the purpose of feat "B" if it's only "A" some of the time. I've encountered this many times. Usually it just results in me ignoring it as an character option... But isn't the only thing in contention its functionality with slashing grace? magus & bladed brush should be fine... unless theres something in that link i've skimmed over, of course.


How are you defining strongest? If all you are looking at is damage than most of the time the fighter is going to be the answer. There is a reason they are called fighters. They are usually very good at combat, but outside of combat they are fairly useless. Looking at a single aspect of a class and basing everything on that one aspect will often lead to disappointment with your character. It’s kind of like saying on building is bigger just because it is taller. You may have a shorter building that has more length and depth so its overall area is much larger than the taller building.

A ranger for example may not do the same amount of damage as the fighter, but has a lot more options than the fighter especially outside of combat. Their skills, spells and other class feature make up for doing less damage in combat. And even in combat if they are facing their favored enemy they can often do more damage than any other class.

Paladins have the best survivability of any class. Getting CHA to all saves and two good saves give them the best saves in the game. They are also immune to many fear and latter most enchantments. Add in swift action healing to keep them up when most other classes have gone down make them very tough to take out. More often than not the paladin is the last person standing after a fight.


Mysterious Stranger wrote:

How are you defining strongest? If all you are looking at is damage than most of the time the fighter is going to be the answer. There is a reason they are called fighters. They are usually very good at combat, but outside of combat they are fairly useless. Looking at a single aspect of a class and basing everything on that one aspect will often lead to disappointment with your character. It’s kind of like saying on building is bigger just because it is taller. You may have a shorter building that has more length and depth so its overall area is much larger than the taller building.

A ranger for example may not do the same amount of damage as the fighter, but has a lot more options than the fighter especially outside of combat. Their skills, spells and other class feature make up for doing less damage in combat. And even in combat if they are facing their favored enemy they can often do more damage than any other class.

Paladins have the best survivability of any class. Getting CHA to all saves and two good saves give them the best saves in the game. They are also immune to many fear and latter most enchantments. Add in swift action healing to keep them up when most other classes have gone down make them very tough to take out. More often than not the paladin is the last person standing after a fight.

Indeed, if only I could be a Chaotic Good Paladin i'd be a happy man... So far the impression I'm getting is that UnBarb or Ranger would be the best fit if that's not an option. Just to check, that still hasn't been made an option since I last played has it?


Have you considered the champion of the faith archetype for warpriests? They are not exactly a paladin but are very close and can be of any alignment. They end up with slightly less pure combat ability, but can get some fighter only feats like weapon specialization and greater weapon focus. Sacred weapon allows them to use weapons with low damage dice that improves as they level up. This actually gives them very good flexibility because they can use a weapon like scimitar and eventually deal 2d8 damage. They don’t get CHA to save, but do have two good saves. They also have access to spells and can cast personal buffs as a swift action.


Mysterious Stranger wrote:
Have you considered the champion of the faith archetype for warpriests? They are not exactly a paladin but are very close and can be of any alignment. They end up with slightly less pure combat ability, but can get some fighter only feats like weapon specialization and greater weapon focus. Sacred weapon allows them to use weapons with low damage dice that improves as they level up. This actually gives them very good flexibility because they can use a weapon like scimitar and eventually deal 2d8 damage. They don’t get CHA to save, but do have two good saves. They also have access to spells and can cast personal buffs as a swift action.

Hmmm, is there a charisma based archetype for warpriest?


There is a Paladin Archetype that allows you to be Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) but it doesn't get divine grace or many of the paladins immunities.

Is it really that hard/boring to RP LG?

As a separate question OP why do you want to use a one handed weapon two handed, as opposed to just using a two handed weapon?


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Errant_Epoch wrote:
Is it really that hard/boring to RP LG?

Sometimes, yes. Depends on the party. (or GM)

Errant_Epoch wrote:
As a separate question OP why do you want to use a one handed weapon two handed, as opposed to just using a two handed weapon?

For science!


Occultist could be neat. If you take a transmutation implement early and put most of your mental focus into it you can get a physical ability buff and signature weapon focus power, abjuration or divination for defense or self buff offense in a hurry. Abjuration will allow you to self buff your armor too. Through Divination you'll have access to one of the best scouting powers in the game "Mind Eye" to say nothing of it's awesome passive bonuses.

It's a 3/4 BaB but it gets all weapons and you can self buff to make up the difference, you'll get a handful of spells too, decent selection, really useful investigative powers built in. I haven't even touched on the unique pets they can get (my occultist isn't using those schools yet.


SillyString wrote:
Blave wrote:

Ranger is bad unless you're fighting your favorite enemy. And even than a fighter will deal potentially more damage.

The UnBarb can still be as powerful as the fighter, simply because of rage powers. It's hard to beat pounce for a melee character.

Both Ranger and Barb are also way better for out-of-combat stuff, of course.

I have almost no knowledge about the Swashbuckler, so I can't comment there.

Shame about the ranger, the skills seemed tempting.

When I looked over the UnBarb I didnt think it was too great given that its rage doesnt seem to benefit two handers as much (no more STR bonus during rage, only static +2), have I overlooked something about the class?

Rangers get a spell called Instant Enemy that can make any foe their favorite enemy. So you can still get those tasty combat bonuses against non-favored enemies when you really need them.


Errant_Epoch wrote:

Occultist could be neat. If you take a transmutation implement early and put most of your mental focus into it you can get a physical ability buff and signature weapon focus power, abjuration or divination for defense or self buff offense in a hurry. Abjuration will allow you to self buff your armor too. Through Divination you'll have access to one of the best scouting powers in the game "Mind Eye" to say nothing of it's awesome passive bonuses.

It's a 3/4 BaB but it gets all weapons and you can self buff to make up the difference, you'll get a handful of spells too, decent selection, really useful investigative powers built in. I haven't even touched on the unique pets they can get (my occultist isn't using those schools yet.

Man, now both my second favorite class (the bloodrager) AND my favorite class have been mentioned in the same thread. Occultists are crazy cool, but people always seem to be going on about how crap they are. I suppose for a simple melee build they could work pretty well though, makes up for their lack of bonus feats... If I went occultist I would have to be small so I could use my soulbound puppet mauler as an undead & flexible disposable mount, because otherwise what kind of monster would I be? There's also that new Haunt Collector archetype which can add some bonuses to attack, i suppose.

Psychometrist Vigilante could bring the best of full BAB & bonus "feats" and the non-resonant occultist goodies, but they don't fit in every campaign very easily. So I'm trying to steer clear of that.


Instant Enemy is good, but you have to wait till level level 10 or 11 to cast it once a day, depending on your wisdom score. And it has a somatic component, so you need a free hand to cast it, so it's not that great for most two weapon fighters. And while it can be cast from a wand, that means you also need to have a hand free and you also have to use a standard action to activate the wand. And the spell's range is Close, so it's not that great for a long range archer.

Instant Enemy is a great thing to have access too, but it comes with a lot of limitations.


Melkiador wrote:
And it has a somatic component, so you need a free hand to cast it, so it's not that great for most two weapon fighters.

Recheck the thread, it's about using a single weapon :)


SillyString wrote:
Melkiador wrote:
And it has a somatic component, so you need a free hand to cast it, so it's not that great for most two weapon fighters.
Recheck the thread, it's about using a single weapon :)

I was being more general, I even mentioned archer, but yeah, this thread is for a single weapon wielded in two hands, which reminds me of another odd problem. There isn't really a good ranger combat style for two handing a weapon. At least I personally don't care for most of the feats in that combat style.


Melkiador wrote:
SillyString wrote:
Melkiador wrote:
And it has a somatic component, so you need a free hand to cast it, so it's not that great for most two weapon fighters.
Recheck the thread, it's about using a single weapon :)
I was being more general, I even mentioned archer, but yeah, this thread is for a single weapon wielded in two hands, which reminds me of another odd problem. There isn't really a good ranger combat style for two handing a weapon. At least I personally don't care for most of the feats in that combat style.

There's always the Switch-Hitter method. Use the Archery Combat style to make using a bow decent when your favorite 2-handed sword isn't the particular tool for the job.


SillyString wrote:
Blave wrote:
For pure numbers (attack and damage) the fighter wins every day of the weak.

*week

Heh, I'm glad to hear that though, in my googling i keep coming across threads calling the fighter underpowered, that's my main reason for making this thread to gauge people's opinions. I guess I'll have to also consider the UnBarb though, seems I've overlooked a fair bit of their potential.

The fighter is underpowered (or at least used to be) but not because it wasn't good at dealing damage. It's because it was only good at dealing damage and nothing else (not entirely true anymore thanks to options that have come out).

Don't make inferences like this because a lot of "fighters suck" threads are based on optins years ago when still did.

Also, Core Barbarian can do basically as much damage as a standard fighter. Barbarian and Fighter are probably your two biggest damage dealers for two-handing. Ranger using Instant Enemy Shenanigans is good too.

It's also worth mentioned that the Two-Hand Fighter archetype is probably the only fighter that out damages the barbarian because it gets extra bonuses to power attack and deals x2 damage when 2 handing instead of 1.5. And that doesn't account for the barbarian grabbing pounce and having the ability to full attack every round, which will lead to the barbarian doing more damage per fight than the fighter.


I am going to throw out an odd choice: Druid.

This is based upon two functionally similar builds- a goliath druid and a vanilla druid that uses earth elemental forms.

Goliath druid is the simple one. It gives up some of its utility with wildshape, but allows you to turn into a giant. Since you are turning into a humanoid, your equipment changes with you, so it is really simple just to grab some nice nonmetal armor and the biggest 2 handed weapons you can (maybe use a half orc to get some nice racial proficiencies?). With the increased size, they get both increased str, but they are also natural reach builds. You can also grab the rage domain for some extra str bonuses.

In comparison, you can get a similar style with base druids... but it is less convenient. As stated- your equipment scales when you turn into humanoids. Other forms normaly absorb the equipment, which is why many druid players have trouble with AC. However, nothing is stopping you from putting equipment on after wildshaping- it lasts for hours per level, so you can just walk around like that. Of course, this has to be equipment made for your new form (ie- it might ahve to be large sized armor that you can't normally wear). This might mess with your versatility a bit, but it is nice for just general ease with preferred forms.

Elementals get a special mention for vanilla druids, since they can have humanoid forms complete with hands and speech. With all that, you could just forget other wild shaping and run around like that all day- you can cast spells, use items, etc. Earth elementals are preferred, since they are the best 2 hander form (big str bonus, some con bonus, and lots of natural armor). Overall, it plays rather similar to a goliath, only with a bit more trouble. Earth elementals can earthglide though, so it has a bit of utility (you might need to grab the cave terrain domain to get tremor sense though).

Sovereign Court

It's worth noting that the Ranger does have a two-handed weapon style that can give you Power Attack and Furious Focus as bonus feats, so that's nice. Their Lead Blades spell can also turn a 1d8 weapon into 2d6, which is a pretty good boost (+2.5 dmg on average). If you want utility, Rangers are hard to beat.

Slayers are also worth consideration, especially if you're not going to be getting frequent Favored Enemy or Terrain bonuses. They can pick the above Ranger bonus feats as Slayer Talents, plus Combat Trick and Weapon Focus for more bonus feats, and get a scaling Studied Target bonus, and Sneak Attack to boot.

Also, don't forget the mighty Samurai! Challenge gives you a huge bonus to damage, Resolve makes you hard to take down, and the Order of the Sword lets you pick up Spirited Charge for double damage if you and your mount charge an opponent down. That, combined with the Order of the Sword's "Add your mount's strength" and a katana's critical threat range makes you a force to be reckoned with indeed.


Errant_Epoch wrote:

There is a Paladin Archetype that allows you to be Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) but it doesn't get divine grace or many of the paladins immunities.

Is it really that hard/boring to RP LG?

As a separate question OP why do you want to use a one handed weapon two handed, as opposed to just using a two handed weapon?

that archetype is just terible and should just be removed losing devine grace defeats the entire purpose of playing a paladin in the 1st place let alone any of the other abilities and you would just be better off playing a fighter than a gray paladin as you would be just as useless but not be at risk of falling ever


Lady-J wrote:
Errant_Epoch wrote:

There is a Paladin Archetype that allows you to be Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) but it doesn't get divine grace or many of the paladins immunities.

Is it really that hard/boring to RP LG?

As a separate question OP why do you want to use a one handed weapon two handed, as opposed to just using a two handed weapon?

that archetype is just terible and should just be removed losing devine grace defeats the entire purpose of playing a paladin in the 1st place let alone any of the other abilities and you would just be better off playing a fighter than a gray paladin as you would be just as useless but not be at risk of falling ever

I don't disagree with you. OP just asked if you could play a non-LG Paladin and you can. I wouldn't but the archetype's there.


Errant_Epoch wrote:
Lady-J wrote:
Errant_Epoch wrote:

There is a Paladin Archetype that allows you to be Neutral Good (or Lawful Neutral) but it doesn't get divine grace or many of the paladins immunities.

Is it really that hard/boring to RP LG?

As a separate question OP why do you want to use a one handed weapon two handed, as opposed to just using a two handed weapon?

that archetype is just terible and should just be removed losing devine grace defeats the entire purpose of playing a paladin in the 1st place let alone any of the other abilities and you would just be better off playing a fighter than a gray paladin as you would be just as useless but not be at risk of falling ever
I don't disagree with you. OP just asked if you could play a non-LG Paladin and you can. I wouldn't but the archetype's there.

you would be better off playing with a reasonable dm and using one of the oath archetypes for playing a non lawfulgood paladin as a few of the oaths are flat out evil in nature while most are a hard neutral at best


Slayers are definitely nice as pseudo-rangers with a damage and attack buff against particular targets which replaces favored enemy. For a lightly armed, versatile "Damage per round" character, they are very, very good.

Rangers overall are pretty solid imo. Not as good as the fighter or barbarian, but still good, and with a very versatile package. Paladins are also a bit like that - their total damage isn't as good without smite on, but their defenses are crazy - two good saves,charisma to all saves, outright immunities AND resist auras to many effects, healing (swift actions if you heal yourself) with status removal riders attached... then you get the spells, divine bond (which can be with a weapon if you don't want a mount) and the rest.

I would say cavaliers and samurai are somewhat underrated. Their focus isn't on great weapons, but challenge isn't bad for extra damage - especially when you pick up the chain challenge feat.


Unusual question, but how do investigators weigh in? They always struck me as more of a utility class, but while we're on topic...


Investigators are decent combatants from 4th level when they get studied combat and 2nd level extracts. Not top of the line but solid when they have time to buff. None of the archetypes has a positive effect on their combat ability as far as I know. They don't really want to swing a 1h weapon two-handed, more like using a longspear or two-weapon fighting, or possibly a rapier alone with a dip in inspired blade swashbuckler.


investigator's are great. Great AC, saves, attack and damage, layered defenses, and skills.


SillyString wrote:
Unusual question, but how do investigators weigh in? They always struck me as more of a utility class, but while we're on topic...

good, but you have a lot of bookkeeping since you use a bunch of different small bonuses to add things up.

you have to watch you buff duration, remaining extracts, mutagen duration, remaining inspiration, etc.


I'd definitely recommend giving the Avenger Vigilante a look, it's competitive with the other full BAB pure martials in terms of raw damage while being far more versatile in terms of what it can do outside of combat.


Can you use the variant multiclassing rules? They are great for fighters who get so many feats that losing a couple doesn't hurt. VMC barbarian would get you rage (and later, rage powers), VMC magus lets you enhance your weapon, and VMC alchemist would eventually gets you mutagen (although I think there is an archetype that gets it quicker.)

Sovereign Court

I think Slayer is ideal if you want a fun hard-hitting build that can also do other stuff. The talents give you almost as many feats as a fighter (3 ranger style feats, weapon focus and combat feat rogue talent) and you can skip some obnoxious prerequisites so depending on how you want to fight you'll actually end up ahead of the fighter.

And then you also get better saves and three times as many skills.

And it's still a simple class for people who don't want to bother with magic.

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Investigator is quite good in combat, but definitely not a beginner-friendly class. It's all about stacking 5-8 different bonuses to turn into a frankenstein death monster.


Monk. But dip into bloodrager, ranger and/or fighter with judiciously chosen archetypes for wand usage, rage, favored enemy and extra feats.


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There are a few ways to build an Eldritch Knight that will come out with enormous damage while also having lots of skills through INT and lots of interesting spellcasting.

For example, an Urban Bloodrager 1/ Strength Patron Witch 6/ Eldritch Knight can stack Controlled Bloodrage with a Furious weapon, Divine Favor with Fate's Favored, Heroism, and Arcane Strike to get a +9 bonus to attack and a +10 bonus to damage by level 9, and they only lose 3BAB getting to Eldritch Knight. If you use 8 levels of Synergist Strength Patron Witch you can get a pounce attack through Improved Familiar - along with a strong flight ability and Divine Power.

On the non-magic side, classes that use a level of Monk can pick up an extra attack through flurry - Sohei allows flurry in mithral medium armor, or you can use Unchained Monk with a solid WIS and maybe Crane Style for AC.

You can also multiclass two levels of Brawler with anything to get Brawler's Flurry, and then take more TWF feats as regular feat picks so you end up with all the extra attacks of TWF, but with a weapon in two hands. A Snakebite Striker Brawler 3/ Slayer can stack up Sneak Attack dice with Accomplished Sneak Attack, and then start combining feinting feats with Brawler's Flurry or single mobile attacks to make Sneak Attacks without needing stealth or flanking.

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