Help building Jak and Daxter (Eldritch Guardian / Jak 1)


Advice


This will not be a guns build of Jak 2 and beyond, but an unarmed build looking like Jak 1. All Paizo + Psionics + Path of War [no use of stances/maneuvers from PoW]

For those of you who don't know this series, Jak is an unarmed fighter able to harness 'eco' or colored energy, giving him short term boosts. Green heals, blue gives haste, red is power, yellow gives range (his punches shoot off energy beams). Daxter is his sidekick, a former human (?) Turned into basically an otter that based on a later game, can hold his own.

The 'best' way I can think of (since none of other noteworthy archetype I can see can stack with Eldritch Guardian ) is taking a Mauler familiar so Daxter isn't eating tons of attacks of opportunities for trying to be useful. Is there any way to keep a familiar tiny and combat useful without growing him to medium size?

As for the Jak part, the fighter feats can easily gain Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity to pump up unarmed damage while the advance weapon training 'Focused Weapon' can at least give warpriest scared damage to unarmed strikes.

Grand Lodge

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You could stack Eldritch Guardian with the Martial Master archetype, so you'd get access to Martial Flexibility and the feats thereafter.

As for your Mauler question- there's a reason why the Mauler familiar works with the Guardian: the inheritant size increase and the damage that comes with it. So, why keep the Mauler tiny, when it's damage gets better when it's bigger?

also, imho, Daxter is more the "mascot" familiar than a Mauler. He never really did anything other than crack jokes and ride around on Jak's shoulder. Daxter definitely ain't a "Sage" type...

Ironically, you could also triple stack with the Mutagen Warrior archetype and get the "dark jak" vibe when he drinks the mutagen and the discoveries he gets at 7th.

[Yes, all three archetype stack. I have the same build running through the Emerald Spire.]


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Selvaxri wrote:

You could stack Eldritch Guardian with the Martial Master archetype, so you'd get access to Martial Flexibility and the feats thereafter.

As for your Mauler question- there's a reason why the Mauler familiar works with the Guardian: the inheritant size increase and the damage that comes with it. So, why keep the Mauler tiny, when it's damage gets better when it's bigger?

also, imho, Daxter is more the "mascot" familiar than a Mauler. He never really did anything other than crack jokes and ride around on Jak's shoulder. Daxter definitely ain't a "Sage" type...

Ironically, you could also triple stack with the Mutagen Warrior archetype and get the "dark jak" vibe when he drinks the mutagen and the discoveries he gets at 7th.

[Yes, all three archetype stack. I have the same build running through the Emerald Spire.]

There is a lot of wisdom in what this guy says. Especially with how little Daxter participates in combat. If you want to keep this strictly Jak 1, no weapons, no dark eco form, no light eco form, you're best bet is probably either the Brawler archetype for Fighter or the Brawler class. The former may not be as appealing as it used to be since you lose advanced weapon training, but it is still sweet for raw damage.

If I was doing this, I would do Jak with a dark eco form as a Mutagenic Mauler Brawler. Then take Iron Will (which already helps your biggest weakness) and Familiar Bond for Daxter. If you don't want Dark Eco, just do vanilla Brawler and make use of martial flexibility.

Grand Lodge

It may be easier to take two levels of Eldritch Guardian, and then jump into Brawler. Rather than wasting a feat on Familiar Bond
After lvl 2, the Eldritch Guardian isn't getting much else by it's lonesome- granted, the Familiar will be fairly weak as it's level is tied to your fighter levels. [But again, Daxter never really did anything.]

Another option, is to make Jak as a Ranger/Hunter, give him Daxter as an animal companion and work towards the Pack Flanking feat; having Daxter with you- you automatically get flanking, automatic +4 to hit with Outflank?. You can opt to NOT increase his size when the time arises.

Remember- even though Daxter is an "ottsel" Otters are meek as familiars, with a bonus to swim checks... Weasels give bonuses to Reflex saves.


Brawler base class for unarmed combat. Monk is alright but doesn't fit their thematic well. Mutagen archetype if you ever wanted dark jak

Eco
Green- combative vigor tree
Blue- boots of speed or other haste effect
Red- power attack or dip a level of barbarian for rage
Yellow- wand of scortching ray? Perhaps just a few reach boosters like lunge if you just want "ranged" punches

Iron will + familiar bond = daxter. I would rate feats as being cheaper than class levels with anything that scales by level well like brawler. If you just want to spend money an awakened normal weasel will be just as helpful as daxter. As in familiar folio stat similiar creatures as one given in the book. He would probably be closest to a weasel


Selvaxri wrote:

You could stack Eldritch Guardian with the Martial Master archetype, so you'd get access to Martial Flexibility and the feats thereafter.

As for your Mauler question- there's a reason why the Mauler familiar works with the Guardian: the inheritant size increase and the damage that comes with it. So, why keep the Mauler tiny, when it's damage gets better when it's bigger?

also, imho, Daxter is more the "mascot" familiar than a Mauler. He never really did anything other than crack jokes and ride around on Jak's shoulder. Daxter definitely ain't a "Sage" type...

Ironically, you could also triple stack with the Mutagen Warrior archetype and get the "dark jak" vibe when he drinks the mutagen and the discoveries he gets at 7th.

[Yes, all three archetype stack. I have the same build running through the Emerald Spire.]

And what did you have for the build, if not secret?


I said Jak 1 mainly to stay away from guns. I completely forgot about Dark Eco/Light Eco. The idea of Dark Eco Jak with Dark Daxter (The Lost Frontier, not made by Naughty Dog) seems fun with Mutagen Master and has a reason for Daxter being combat worthy.

I'd hate to go Martial Master for Fighter, since Focused Weapon is the one thing that can make unarmed damage not horrible. Also Brawler may be the better idea for a pure Jak 1. Familiar Bond doesn't give you any benefits that normally come from a familiar. Skill Focus and Eldritch Heritage is a better option for a familiar unless you really want that +1 Will Saves from Iron Will.

Thanks for all the help guys. As for the Eco, Haste/Enlarge Person (Red does become slightly bigger iirc) work well, just have to have a good Cha/UMD. Yellow will probably be Lunge or the Lengthen Arms spell or whatever the spell is called.

As for Combat Vigor, Dastis you mention a tree. I don't see anything about Combat Vigor under d20pfsrd's combat feat section (I did find the base feat), what are the other feats in the tree?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Skill Focus and Eldritch Heritage is still a two feat cost, but taking skill focus (knowledge) seems strictly worse than the +2 will save on a class with a weak will save, and EH means you need more charisma as well.

Fighter and Brawler both get so many feats, I think taking Familiar Bond is fine. That said, they also can have a lot of synergy dipping with each other or other classes.

If you want a combat viable animal you could also do the Wild Child Brawler, which I think stacks with Mutagenic Mauler. A Wolverine could work pretty fine for a nastier version of Daxter.

Edit: Also, for pure punching, the Brawler fighter archetype holds up pretty well. It's weapon training comes online earlier and gives more damage. It gets some additional control options including anti Caster stuff. Advanced Weapon Training might still be better and is definitely more flexible, but this ain't bad.


Fortuitous vigor, Restorative vigor, take a breather, vim and vigor. Tree was a misnomer on my part. More of additional healing options that have combat vigor as a prerequisite

Another option I thought of was Shielded Gauntlet style if you want to play "unarmed" with another class

Iron will is a +2 btw

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