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I had written a couple traits for two homebrew modules built around Kingmaker. One was Dragon's Demand if it took place in the kingdom and the other was a sort of Kingmaker After Story so the fluff of these traits may not fit too well. Most were purposely made more powerful than other traits but generally within the half a feat rule. Feel free to adjust them.

My concern with Guided Hand is the damage. You still can't get wisdom to damage as that feat is locked behind the mythic system for some god forsaken reason. This coupled with the time it takes to grab the feat makes me worry even more for the viability of the setup. Your first level dwarven cleric can't get guided hand even with your GM approval unless he takes an archetype that grants bonus feats like Crusader. This means that you probably have some points put into strength for previously mentioned reasons such as gaining power attack and doing damage as well as some more overlooked benefits like being able to carry more things (though dwarves need not worry anyways).

Having read through the thread, I was surprised that no other classes have been suggested as options for dipping. Unless you were going to get real creative with your fighter bonus feat or archetypes, a Gendarme Cavalier gets you your armor, weapon profs and a bonus feat and a horse to boot. This option would delay guided hand to third level if you were going to take it at all. The horse would be particularly useful for kingmaker and lets you keep up with the rest of the party. Moreover, even though your hammer will be your primary weapon, a lance charge is a pretty solid way to start an encounter. You could just get a horse and lance without the dip but I think its better than fighter.

Other options include Sohei Monk (unchained if allowed), Armored Hulk Barbarian, and even Ranger though these aren't as powerful. One way you can balance being a full-casting front-liner is through spell selection. If you avoid save or suck and focus on recovery or non-save spells then you can afford to put more focus into strength.

Fighters have never let me down on the front line. I'd know I've played plenty, though maybe that's because my fighters live short and violent lives.

I'm curious as to why you don't have intimidating prowess or why no one else suggested it. I wonder if its just bad but it would seem that it is better than skill focus at lower levels and you can just stack skill focus to make your intimidate even better.

As for the big sword, throwing in EWP Bastard Sword should allow you to put an Effortless Lace on it and allow you to wield it easier than a large Greatsword and do more damage. There is also the Iron Grip Gauntlets to help with oversized weapons.

Absolutely love where your head is at... using the crank crossbow for dungeon diving. Nice.

Quick side note, I gave an NPC in my Kingmaker campaign some levels of Bolt Ace and a crank crossbow "just in case"... so I am picking up what you are laying down.

Can't help you with the Vigilante business... that's not my jam. But you can probably get away with just picking up Disable Device with a trait (Vagabond Child?)... I would go into something like Arsenal Chaplain Warpriest or Sohei Monk. Just pick up a wand of Summon Stupid Monster to set off traps that you cannot disable.

I would have never thought of a wand of summon stupid. Its brilliant. I am bit confused on what to make of the Arsenal Chaplin or Sohei. Is it just for weapon training or is there some synergy that eludes me?

You could wield 2 two-handed weapons with Titan Mauler thanks to its second level ability Jotungrip, which specifically allows you to wield two-handed weapons with one hand, but... The penalties for wielding large two-handed weapons this way are absurd.

Jotungrip -2
Two-weapon fighting (w/feat) -4
Large two-handed weapon -5
Total: -11

Without the two-weapon fighting feat, it's -13 on the main-hand and -17 on the off-hand and you need 15 dex for the feat unless you go 2 levels into ranger or slayer, so it's a build that requires a high level character with good stats to be worthwhile.

Its a bit of a stretch (you can check the other threads) but Jotun Grip combined with the Effortless Dual Wield Advanced Weapon Training Fighter option could allow doubling up on greatswords with less penalty. The problem still comes from using large weapons though.

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Clearly I think considering changing the game is a group decision as everyone was involved and believeability of the story and fair play is involved. I think the GM also has to review his goals and group goals and make sure this is what he wants.
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I think you've got it on the money. These sort of things are probably best handled with everyone's opinion. If the other players are down with retconning the funeral or doing some of the other creative options previously mentioned, then why get in the way? If most of the party is against the retcon even with the most elegant retcon option, then why force it?

I would only retcon if my players were okay with it. Otherwise I tend to stick with the "too little too late" rule. My reasoning being that the numbers and mechanics are just to help tell the story and in a way that gives players agency. This is why I am lenient when my players flub rolls.

Background:
I am currently in a Shattered Star campaign and retired my Grey Maiden character at the Lady's Light. I have come in as a Slayer who is focused on damage as a sort of support for our tank. While I do not plan on dying or retiring, this character was dreamt up as my backup for my first character and I am now in need of another.

Our party is made up of a Paladin, Cleric, Arcanist, Sorcerer/Fighter, and my Slayer. We are rather lacking in terms of ranged combat and dungeon exploration. For a campaign supposedly focused on dungeon diving, there have been a surprising low amount of traps so far. We are currently 5th level.

I went through a couple ideas trying to put together a sort of Indiana Jones type of treasure hunter then I was inspired by the the Crank Crossbow. I have compiled some notes for a character that could use his crossbow effectively while having the ability to help lead some dungeon diving.

Build:
Half-Elf
Bolt Ace Gunslinger 5 / Double Scion Vigilante 2+
My thinking here is that this deep dip into Bolt Ace will grant me the ability to focus my other choices on more out of combat options. I am not married to Double Scion but I selected it to give me the wiggle room ranged combatants sometimes need. I also think Avenger Vigilante is a fine option to retain full BAB and a decent amount of skills. This is also to grab the Always Prepared social talent.

Feats are tricky and I am pretty sure they will have to be ranged combat ones but I am particularly interested in seeing what options you all can come up with. Focused Shot seems like a sure fit.

The only thing set in stone is that I want this character to use a crank crossbow. I would greatly appreciate any ideas the community can come up with.

To clarify: this is not a double weapon, right? Like, it's two different two-handed weapons, and you can use either set of rules, but not both at the same time?

Yes this is not a double weapon but I wrote feat that grants double, brace and blocking. My player does not have this feat so that's not in question.

As for use at the same time, for full attacks I allow the player to switch which part of the weapon he is using. Cleave is a different question.

I guess I forgot to mention that he has greater cleave which is far better. I am not worried about his damage and honestly I prefer him out of the saddle so that he doesn't spirited charge my bosses.

My concern is that the cleave text calls for another attack rather then using the same attack. I can see they wrote it this way but it my weapon seems to push the feat to its limits. I was aware of the Dwarven Urgrosh, Dorn Dergar and Meteor Hammer but none of those do what I wanted this weapon to do.

Thanks for your input.

Your Palico doesn't have a strength penalty like most small classes which actually makes it comparatively strong. I haven't very played very much Monster Hunter but I did enjoy seeing Palicos wade into battle so maybe that was intentional. The Maine Coon actually gets a bonus to strength which I think is great.

I wrote a homebrew module and eventually got to play it with my group when one of members had to pause another game we were playing. I also wrote up some traits, class archetypes and prestige classes for use in my setting. My question is about a weapon I created that some of these classes get to use.

I know that since I am the GM that I can rule however I want but I decided to see what the community thinks. Since the head has reach and the cue is melee, can a player cleave while switching which side of the weapon he is using. One of players tried this and I allowed it. However, to my knowledge there is not an official weapon that does this so I was wondering if that would possible. The cleave rules don't seem to stop the player from switching weapons. Would it be possible to hit a target, drop a weapon, quick draw a reach weapon, and attack an enemy adjacent to the first?

Either way, I just wanted this to be a versatile weapon and my player has certainly gotten some good use out of it. I would not have thought that a cavalier could be so deadly out of the saddle but he just cleaves my groups of enemies.

I don't know if this character is already made or if this is a theory craft but if you can help it, I would recommend adding the Skulking Slayer archetype as a half-orc to add to your rogue levels. You get the ability to add sneak attack to your cleave for when you aren't charging. This also adds the cleave chain to your list of feats if you weren't sure what to pick up. While you still have vital strike as an option, cleave and surprise follow through give you some crowd control ability.

Because you are a Crusader Cleric, I would recommend sticking to monk. The spells probably won't be worth it and the channel is negligible as well. One more level progress your base attack but little else. If your domain had some interesting abilities it might be worth it but otherwise the first level dip really only serves roleplay purposes and allows access to crusader's flurry. I'm surprised you didn't fit guided hand into your build but I guess channel smite is pretty trash.

The Charger Cavalier archetype is a pretty good single level dip. You can move onto scout rogue to maximize your charge damage. You can go twohanded fighter for double strength to damage. You can even go barbarian and work towards rage lance pouncing. Granted, the natural jouster feat accomplishes the same thing.

I know its not on your list but I have always thought that a gunslinger centaur just has a really high cool factor. Throw dual wielding into the mix and you have the coolest monster on the field.

I see you've continued to work on this since your reddit post. It looks like you've toned down some traits a bit. I'm glad that you're sticking with powerful traits and didn't make them weak like the other redditors were suggesting.

Adept Orphan: This trait looks interesting but it is sort of your traditional tabula rasa kind of trait. I hope this some sort of plot pay-off down the road and is not just some normal orphan trait.

Outsider Initiate: I don't know what normal hell knight dispositions are but indifferent seems harsh. I guess they are a rather cantankerous group though. Storywise I would have the hell knights be more friendly and just leave the dc at indifferent.

Barbarian was mentioned but I will throw my lot in with Unchained Barbarian for those non-str dependent bonuses and martial weapon proficiency. Add three levels of rogue to reign in stat dependency and you're only down one base attack from a normal barbarian. Your attack bonus will appreciate this as well as benefit early on from rage. You already have 2d6 of sneak attack and should be more durable than most rogues so you can flank with kukris to great effect.

As for race, I like aasimars and they have several stat bonuses depending on where you wanted them. I also just find them more appealing than their fiendish counterparts.

These days sex refers to the observed dimorphism in species and gender less as an identity of a sex but role. The whole gender role thing seems untenable to me as calling something a woman's or man's role seems inherently sexist (genderist?). I imagine you and your players are adults and can work through this development without calling each other bigots.

A simple way to handle the appearance of what the reborn player will look like is to say that he (now she) has a striking resemblence of his mother, which he already may have had but now even more taking dimorphic characteristics into account.

The other option is that the player looks the same but has a vagina. This is where your other-kin player might take offense as he/she might claim that a person with a penis can be a woman and were back to square one. If anything, the village is sexist for only allowing woman shamans and you cant really blame anyone for that, a story without bigots only leaves virtuous people to kill each other.

Orc's probably wrestle or do other tests of strength if not outright killing each other. Golarion orcs seem to be similar to Tolkien's uruks and one of his more on the nose uses of the uruk is that evil constantly turns on itself.

Wrestling can easily just be a grappling duel with unarmed attacks also being legal. Maybe your orcs like to box or do other martial arts as a form of non-lethal (yet potentially lethal) challenge.

As for balancing the CR or level of the orc in question, I'd say it'd depend on what kind of orc the player is challenging. If he is going for a fair fight then he'd take on something like a half-chief, or just an orc who leads others into battle and that the party can expect to be more durable than other orcs. This would probably be a 5th level barbarian and particularly difficult encounter. If he's gunning for the chief than it would be a different story.

Sounds like some Ridiculous 6 goodness especially since the human is the father. The party can get together so that they could find their absent father who is truly the bbeg, being an absent father / womanizer.

There's the masked maiden vigilante archetype. Oozemorph shifters are gender: not applicable. Aside from that I can't think of anything.

If we're going beyond core classes, then we can include the Sanguine Angel, which is just a Gray Maiden prestige class. Oddly enough the Sister in Arms Cavalier archetype does not specify a gender though it does mention the Gray Maidens.

I would check with the other players and see if your problem player is bothering them. If they aren't bothered then you should just let them play the way they want. In the case of cheating, I'd even let them play as long as everyone was having fun. In your case, your player is deliberately playing bad so I'd just let them as often as their inferior build will lead them to death. If this starts draining party gold and loot then just more in to accommodate this loss.

The Wild Child Brawler gives up half of his bonus feats for an animal companion. While you can't pounce, you can modify your lance and make it a Close Weapon to flurry when you can't charge as well as flurrying other weapons.

I still think eating anything is evil for the reasons listed in my first post. Anyone have a counterargument?

Bad people eat.

In logic we call this the fallacy of the undistributed middle. While pointing out a fallacy is not a counter argument it does expose a weakness in your logic that I can exploit. A proper counter would require a scenario where a good person is eating. Iomedae is the goddess of paladins and I presume she eats or at least did when she was mortal. Likewise, her paladins eat without falling. In conclusion, bad people are not the only people that eat. This need not prove that eating is neutral, good or evil.

As for the morality of eating, Golarian does have a model of good and evil as well as lawful and chaotic. However, there are people in our world who would make the case that eating is wrong. Particularly vegetarians or vegans, but moral discussions on Paizo forums never really bear any fruit.

With seven other characters the best thing you can do for the party is play whatever you like best. That being said, an Evangelist Cleric could probably be pretty good to cover combat healing and buffing. This Cleric can also pick up a two-hander and get some damage in. A Cavalier with Order of the Lion may also do well and you could even work towards Battle Herald. These are just force multiplier ideas so that you make even greater use of a large party.

Edit: I didn't see that you were a brawler.

Might derail the thread, but slayers don’t have the ranger armor restriction.

The slayer merely chooses a ranger combat style to select feats from, but gains access to those feats using his own mechanics and does not use the ranger mechanics to gain those feats.

Leaning into this derail, I believe the bold text is in reference to feat requirements though the overall language is tricky. The bold text is pulled directly from the ranger's combat style feature. However, the slayer talent is missing all of the text that includes restrictions and a liberal reading (probably RAW) suggests that not only can Slayers wear heavy armor, but they can also select multiple combat styles.

Throw in two levels of Snakebite Striker and modify a greatsword with the Versatile Design (Close) and you have some pretty good dpr though I don't know how this compares to the other builds. I've personally tried this and my Brawler/Slayer/Shadow Dancer was dominated during his first encounter and downed two of our party members.

You seem pretty committed to this build but I have to ask if you've looked into the Masked Maiden Vigilante archetype. I personally don't like tactician or teamwork feats but I haven't really tried it. Also the Gray Maiden Iniate feat sounds exaclty like what your character is. The benefits are kind of mediocre but Gray Maiden Endurance and Faceless Maiden can be useful.

Imperfect Control can be hit or miss (more miss with a bard in the party) but FreePlate is free and armor training is always cool. It doesn't say if she gets advanced armor training but the alternate armor training options as well as some vigilante talents can be interesting.

Real Gray Maidens are just 8th level fighters with bastard swords. I think the vigilante keeps this theme better than the cavalier. There is also the Sanguine Angel prestige class that builds directly off of fighters and possibly barbarians. The Masked Maiden would be able to prestige into this easily enough and benefit from continued armor training progression. Just some options to consider.

I usually see "when does two-handing beat twf" types of posts but the idea generally is, more attacks more better. Without pounce twf falls out of glory as full attacks get rarer as the two-hander gets more attacks himself. This is why I really like the brawler.

I have not not seen knifemaster mentioned but it really amps up what the rogue can do especially with some kukris. Those d8s add up rather quickly and should outpace standard Fighter or Barbarian damage by 5th level. Cavaliers and archers should still you give you a run for your money but I think its around 7th level that casters outpace everything else.

I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to share these feats though a GM might rule this as a shared inactive feat. Such a ruling would not exactly be RAW if the AoN feat text holds.

I'm not too sure about the other question.

Despite all of my theory crafting, I usually end up playing fighters or at the least some sort of martial class. I even considered turning my witch into an eldritch knight but reason won the day then. Worse yet, I don't even play straight fighters because multiclassing is so fun and rewarding at lower levels.

Also, all of my dice are red and I get called out on it all of the time.

This exploration began with me wondering what a cavalier who specialized in fighting giants looked like. I call it the Titan Lancer. It's a Titan Fighter 1 / Titan Mauler 1 / Gendarme X. Order of the Hero works better thematically but Sword is just so good.

I see no reason why a Titan Fighter couldn't charge with a large lance but I was wondering if he could do it one handed. As ridiculous as charging into giants with a tree for a lance in one hand and a tower shield in the other is, I was wondering if this was legal or if somewhere its said that the one-handing a lance when mounted only applies to properly sized lances? Naturally the penalty for this nonsense who be a -6 to attack for what amounts to +5 avg damage (14 dmg instead of 9).

Alternatively, is it possible that the mount downgrades the large lance to be an effective normal lance for the purposes of wielding so that one could two hand a large lance without Giant Weapon Wielder penalties?

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Since Double weapons are still two-handed weapons (not light weapons) being wielded with two hands, even if they grant additional attacks, I believe they still fall into this category of applying 1.5 strength mod.

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I have never even considered this to be a possible ruling. Reading the light weapon penalties as only applying to attack (so not actually a penalty considering) would make this viable and rewarding to those who want to mix up the whole "humans are best at everything"

I didn't see any mention of it but I think a half orc with an orc double axe is worth a mention. He loses the bonus feat humans get but trades that in for other orc goodies and that orc familiarity. I didn't crunch any numbers but a double weapon should as effective as two light weapons for slightly better damage as well as other bonuses inherent with double weapons namely being able to add str +1/2 when you move and attack and freeing up a hand for potions or what not.

Life Oracle has Life Link which prevents damage to allies 5 hp at a time. Stack this with Shield Other and you'll take a lot of your allies damage.

Why are you two weapon fighting with a swashbuckler?

Maybe twf is his way of nerfing the Swashbuckler. On the other hand its perfectly possible to not free hand style and just not use Precise Strike. My personal favorite is greatsword parrying. The Azatariel archetype has no text specifying a single weapon when using Whimsical Riposte which places Precise Strike. This cannot be used with greatswords but it can allow two rapiers.

I believe that Surprising Strategy is reffering to the Riposte class feature of the Duelist PrC, not Opportune Parry and Riposte from the swashbuckler base class.

Good catch. If it was referring to Swashbuckler it would have said Deed not Class Feature

What about an Oath of People's Council Paladin? Sure it doesn't have the spells of bards and clerics but it has a bardic performance, can face and take punishment on the frontline.

Naturally anyone really worried about the frontline would recommend something that summons creatures to take the damage.

Not sure what the path of war stalker is but it looks like the group is missing a big buff guy as well as healing. A paladin or oradin with a greatsword would fit right in.

If you really are more melee focused you could just take three levels of Eldritch Scion Magus. This means that you only lose one base attack and you gain spellstrike for giggles.

I'm not sure what you plan on doing with the sorcerer list and slow progression but with Eldritch Scion you can spell strike to make your melee more effective. With the fractional BAB rules you can net a BAB of 5 at 6th level (2 Paladin, 2-1/4 Magus, 3/4 Dragon Disciple).

Your standard Fighter will be at +6/+1 at 6th level which raises his damage quite a bit. You on the other hand only have one attack which means you can spellstrike. At 6th level you still have a CL of 3. With the Close Range magus arcana you can add 1d3 cold damage to your attacks but you can also use shocking grasp for an extra 3d6 of electricity damage. Spellstriking is perfectly legal for two handed weapons so you could Theoretically use a butchering axe for 3d6 + 3d6 electricity damage and just show up your party barbarian.

Edit: Just saw your newest post. A good 2 level dip would be brawler for brawler's flurry and with weapon modifications you could make greatswords close weapons and then flurry.

It depends on the creature's moral status. That is, how much value a society attributes to it. Since dragons and trolls have a nasty habit of burning or destroying things people value, it is not hard to kill them or to take their parts as trophies. The same goes for the ruthless slaughter the pcs tend to bring upon bandits.

You could make characters that take issue with wearing the trophies made out of sentient creatures to resolve the double standard but its only a double standard relative to the standard. The sentient critters the pcs chop to bits are most of the time just numbers that try to kill them so they retaliate with their own cold calculus. This could be solved with the gms making sapients surrender and more "sentient." Lore-wise, there seems to be plenty of xeno-phobia when comes to uncivilized or monstrous critters. This can be changed by the gm but most players seem to assume a Lord of the Rings standard for their fantasy.

I'm guessing people don't wear orc faces as trophies because they are too humanoid but then again, orc skulls make fine trophies. There is also the argument that the more civil gear is more effective. Mithral or Adamantine may be more preferable to dragon armor.

Vampire Centaur Cavalier?

Given that you're second level the winter in reign of winter has already started. You won't be able to hit the broadside of a barn with a flat -4 to firing a bow in the snow then the whole, "don't have precise shot?" another -4. I've played an archer in Reign of Winter and it requires some focus. I also got murderized but not because I was trash with a bow. I don't think a spare bow will do you any good.

You sound like you want to be a Slayer or Ranger more than a fighter. They both get get 6 skills which will be pretty handy for your concept. I recommend Slayer and wearing heavy armor but you won't be able to use Ranger Combat Styles if you do so use your talents on other stuff like Combat Trick. At 5th you can grab accomplished sneak attacker to boost your sneak attack damage.

MOAR SPLAT

If you really want to change up how fighters get skills I suggest 2 + Con mod. This keeps your fighter dumb and now he's bigger.

As you are a player, you may need to talk to your GM. I second the suggestion to make a new character. I'd probably just kill his character to give him the chance to make what he thinks is the solution to his problem but there are some problems with this option. The party is probably at the point where there is no reason to not resurrect dead players and another problem is that he rolls his character's twin brother and is back to square one.

As for the dice problem, trading dice may be an interesting step in determining the source of the problem. No one really to buy new dice if they like how set looks and rolls but maybe the problem is the table or his impeccable rolling technique. The easy and boring solution is to use a computer dice roller. A better solution would be having the GM do all of the rolling and preferably behind a screen.

Give fighters rage and let them take rage powers as feats just like the viking archetype but more powerful

Being able to get talents instead of bonus feats has always been an idea of mine.

Without equipment or multiclassing, it looks like he only has 70 ft. Bloodrager, Travel Domain Cleric, Hermit Oracle or Flame Oracle, and Flame Shaman all give +10 base speed so at 11th with 4 dips, he could be at 100 ft and some boots of striding and sprinting puts him at 110 ft which would be per 66000 ft traveled in 600 rounds or ~12.5 mph without double moving, meaning spring attacking.

A quick search on the Google suggests that the top speed of a real person was 28 mph with 40 mph being the theoretical limit. With the run feat, this build's speed should be 50 mph when running which seems super human enough.

Since its an evil campaign, I would take the Executioner archetype. With two levels of Brawler you can flurry (twf) with one weapon and if you take the Snakebite Striker archetype for brawler you get an extra Sneak Attack damage die. This could be almost any weapon such as Greatswords. I would then use my talents to grab improved two weapon fighting which works with brawlers flurry. You'd be able to do two handed damage when you cant flurry and then twf when you can.

Another option would depend on how your GM rules but if you take a level in Knifemaster Rogue, your Sneak Attack damage, including from Slayer levels, should become d8s with your kukris. If you end up twf with kukris you might want to reconsider power attack. I believe there is a slayer talent that gives better power attack as well.

Gestalt does seem more appropriate for super humans.

Looks like a Swashbuckler 3 / Fighter 2 / Investigator 1 to me, more specifically Azatariel 3 / High Guardian 2 / Sleuth 1. With a spear, you'd be able to parry and riposte with your charisma to attack and damage. Sleuth allows you to have twice as much panache and High Guardian allows you focus on strength and wear heavy armor.

After 6th you can take a level in Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger for even more panache then prestige to Furious Guardian (Ulfen Guard) for rage. You'd look like those guards that defend doors and halls with a spear.