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If the idea of an intelligent animal companion interests u but u don’t want to take the Courtly Hunter there is another way to get one. Depending on ur alignment you can get either a griffon (INT 5) or a warg (INT 6) with the monstrous mount feat. Both Human and Halfling have alternate racial traits that can add +2 to any stat u choose for Animal Companions or familiars. The Precious Companion pet archetype adds 2 to INT and 4 to WIS and CHA. With these options and the stat bonuses they get every 4HD you could have a griffon with INT 8 at level 5 going up to 10 at level 7. U can do this on any class with an animal companion so it opens up ur options a lot. If you build for it you could let ur animal companion take care of your intimidation rolls while you handle the polite social interactions.

Another option to consider is Variant Multiclassing. VMC Bard can make any class a budget Bard at the cost of feats. VMC barbarian can add combat potential to even the tamest of classes/archetypes. VMC rogue or VMC cavalier with order of the blossom can give you up to 4d6 sneak attack (5d6 with accomplished sneak attacker feat). VMC witch/wizard/sorcer(arcane bloodline) can give u a familiar and the Mauler familiar archetype can turn it into a budget Animal Companion. VMC monk on an Elemental Ascetic Kineticist is a potent combination giving the class scaling monk damage.

Not to toot Courtly Hunters horn but I do want to point out that with your intelligent pet (equal to a familiar) the class also grants it all your class skills and skill ranks like a familiar (as well as its own ranks) you therefore essentially get potentially 2 rolls on every skill check or dedicated aid other on one roll. The teamwork feat Bonded Mind lets you communicate telepathically with your pet so u can communicate easily. Enuff on the Courtly Hunter; the Vigilante class could also do well in the roll of Royal Hero.

It’s one of my favourite archetypes so I’m biased but may I suggest Courtly Hunter? The archetype trades out most of its combat abilities for an intelligent pet and social abilities; however you can get back some cool combat cantered focuses with the Planar Focus feat you can take at 5th level like fire damage added to all melee attacks for example. You can take boon companion and dip 4 levels into a combat focused class like fighter to get a few more combat abilities or feats without loosing too much from the hunter class.

Another thing you could do with your off hand is aquire a natural weapon attack. Kitsune already have a bite attack if you add a claw through a level dip or from a feat then you would have a pair of finessable secondary attacks to add to your attack routine. Not saying this is the best option just AN option. An agile amulet of mighty fists would at least do dex to damage.

The Estoc is a one handed exotic finessable weapon that can also be used with 2 hands.

If I remember correctly there is a stealth errata in Ultimate Wilderness that affects the magical child found in the opening section for companions and familiars in the pdf version of the book. It states something to the effect that if a magical child’s familiar takes an archetype all of its forms must be able to use the same archetype. Since it functions as the improved familiar feat at level 3+ (I think) that limits it to only those archetypes that don’t alter speak with animals of its kind. I’m not sure if this text can be found on AoN. That section also introduces the rule that prevents tumour familiars from taking the protector archetype.

If u are interested in a couple of level dips to boost damage there are 2 that I can think of. Elementalist Shifter lets you add 1d6 energy damage to all melee attacks as a swift action. Elemental Ascetic Kineticist gets Kinetic Fist at 0 burn at first level to add 1d6 to all Unarmed Strikes. If you take 2 levels in the Kineticist your levels stack with monk for AC bonus and you can take Elemental Whispers to gain an unkillable familiar. Good familiar choices can add +1 natural armor, +4 initiative, or +2 to save of your choice.

Another way to add to the offensive abilities of your character is to acquire an animal companion or equivalent creature (eidolon or phantom for example). You can do this either by taking a class that grants one or taking the animal ally feat. If you build for it even a familiar with the mauler archetype can suffice as an animal companion. Going the possessed hand route to gain a familiar even makes your familiar effectively unkillable since even if it dies your hand grows back in 2d4 days (faster with regeneration).

I wouldn’t worry too much about dealing damage to the enemy directly. If your allies are hitting because you buffed them or debuffed the enemy then effectively their damage is your damage. The party can’t deal damage if they can’t land a hit effectively. And if you’re healing your allies as well then again their damage is effectively your damage. Your party members can’t deal any damage if they are dead, unconscious, or forced to flee to avoid going down. Awesome effective support characters are what keeps the party going when the going gets rough. If your gaming group members are telling you that you are doing good then take them at their word. Having good support characters also allows the people in your group to play more thematic characters rather than optimized damage dealers as well. I’m sure your group appreciates you giving them the flexibility to play characters that they enjoy as well. Support characters are great. Don’t sell yourself short. Play characters you enjoy. That’s the point. If your friends aren’t complaining then you don’t have anything to feel useless for.

Since natural attacks don’t get extra iterative attacks from high BAB the usual strategy for natural attacks is to stack as many types of natural attacks as possible. For example a Wereraptor-kin Skinwalker with one rank of Shifter can have five primary natural attacks at level 1. Other class features from other classes or from magic items can add even more attacks.

To expand on my idea a little it was my thought that as a fluid bodied small creature with compression you could squeeze into a hollow object like a pitcher or small cauldron or box. Something with a lid that would keep you unseen from the rest of the party or npcs. An object that would block line of sight and effect that would keep you out of combat more or less entirely so being a relatively fragile construct would be less of a liability. As a construct you wouldn’t need to breathe so even air holes would be unnecessary and you wouldn’t need to sleep so your eidolon wouldn’t disappear at night. Being essentially locked in a lightless box would probably result in sensory deprivation eventually but that’s a separate issue.

LOL :D not sure that’s how compression works :)

That said since Wyrwoods are small size I wonder if they could squeeze into a tiny sized suit of armor? Disguise yourself as a tiny construct. your eidolon could even place you inside a familiar satchel for protection.

You would need to be a wyrwood to avoid your eidolon disappearing each night when you sleep. There is one unconventional way I can think of to have you appear as an object (subject to GM approval). You could dip 1 level into Oozemorph shifter to gain a fluid body and the compression ability. Then you could pour yourself into an appropriately sized hollow container. As a wyrwood you don’t need to breath eat or sleep so u could remain in the container, indefinitely perhaps.

There are no other VMC options that I’m aware of but as it’s an optional rule set anyway perhaps discuss with ur GM and you can come up with some homebrew options. As for the “all or nothing” feat for class feature swap I think that is the case but again ur GM may allow for skipping some features or swap them out for something more useful or appropriate. Note that not all of the VMC options are created equal. Some are bad and some may be a little too good but it all depends on the classes combined. VMC monk is usually a bad choice but if you combine it with Elemental Ascetic Kineticist for example it can be a good combination. In my opinion VMC summoner is just bad no matter how u look at it but others may feel differently.

https://aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1852

Here’s a link I hope works. Sorry you’ll have to copy/paste it cuz I’m terrible at the formatting on this site

Archives of Nethys in the rules from Pathfinder Unchained.

VMC Wizard with the fire, magma, or smoke arcane school are also options. On the flip side if there is a class you like mechanically but doesn’t quite fit the theme Variant Multiclassing can help there too. For instance if you were to take Elementalist Shifter you could take VMC cavalier, Paladin, inquisitor or Bard perhaps. An item you may want to consider is Demonic Smith’s gloves to add the flaming property to your weapon attacks. Another class suggestion is Warlock Vigilante. Their mystic bolts ability is another way to chuck some fire around (they also benefit from Demonic Smith’s Gloves as well).

If there’s a class you like thematically but it doesn’t have much in the way of fire based abilities there are ways to “fake it” as it were. Variant Multiclassing is a good way to do it. VMC sorcerer with elemental or fiendish bloodlines or VMC cleric with the fire domain can work. If your base class is charisma based the Eldritch Heritage Feat line with elemental or fiendish bloodlines is another way as well. If your race is Ifrit you can use Elemental Strike as I mentioned earlier and I believe Ifrit also has some Racial feats that add fire damage to your weapon attacks with metal weapons.

A few other suggestions. If you decide to go with Ifrit as your race that opens up access to the Elemental Strike feat that can add up to 5 points of fire damage to your attacks. A couple of classes to consider. Elementalist Shifter can add up to 6d6 elemental damage to all melee attacks as a swift action by level cap. Forester Hunter with the Planar Focus feat can add up to 5d6 fire damage to all melee attacks by level cap.

If you are considering kineticist the energize weapon infusion may be of interest to you. You mentioned wanting to be a sword wielder and energize weapon would allow you to add your infused kinetic blast to your weapon attack. As a composite blast with blue flame composite blast you can deal up to 8d6 per hit by level cap if I remember correctly and then add the empower metamagic on top.

Hmm…..interesting. I was not aware of that.

I think I see a problem with your rogue build. The Combat Trick talent does not state that it can be taken multiple times so I think (I may be wrong) that by RAW it may only be taken once. This is true for both the chained and unchained versions of the rogue class as well as Ninja. Your GM may allow this of course but you should run it by them first before playing a character with multiple Combat Trick talents.

There are non-human Tieflings. You could very well make a small sized goblin Tiefling instead of a goblin if you wish. Asura-spawn tiefling get bonus to dex and wis and would make a good gunslinger.

I may be wrong but I don’t think getting a 30ft reach by level 6 is particularly difficult actually. A Druid with standard Change Shape ability can take the form of a Dire Ape by 6th level. They can take the Weapon Shift feat at 5th level and if they are proficient with whips they can shift the whip and add the reach(15ft) weapon special ability to their natural attacks. Since they have a 10ft reach already and reach weapons are duplicative not additive when combined with natural reach this would give them a 30ft reach in Dire Ape form. Gestalt with Aberrant Bloodrager to gain an extra 5 foot reach on top of that and pre-cast Long Arm before combat for a total of 40ft.

Avenger Vigilante could work as well. A lot of their talents grant you two feats such as shield of fury counting as improved shield bash and two weapon fighting and signature weapon counting as weapon focus and weapon specialization. The combat skill talent also grants you combat feats with an effective fighter level equal to half your vigilante level.

I see no reason why you couldn’t use TWF with whips as they are one handed weapons. In fact if one of them is equipped with an Effortless Lace you won’t get the normal penalty associated with fighting with 2 one handed weapons as one will be considered a light weapon.

You may want to consider dipping one level in Warrior Poet Samurai. They gain weapon finesse as a bonus feat and can use it with glaives and naginatas. You would also gain the challenge and Flourish class features and some of the flourishes are pretty neat.

Also the Feral Combat Training feat allows monks to make 1 selected natural attack in place of unarmed strikes when making a Flurry of Blows. Since a monk can make all of their flurry attacks with the same weapon this allows monks to make multiple attacks with the same natural attack.

It’s a little unclear but the OP’s first post references the Nagaji race. Reading it again it seems to me that the OP’s GM is allowing him to use a modified Nagaji with a serpentine lower body as his “Lamia”. This would make him a medium sized PC race not using the “monsters as PCs” rules guidelines. If this is the case it simplifies things a little. I think, if the GM is on board, a 1 level dip in Synthesist Summoner would solve the issue. While not being particularly effective for combat fusing with an humanoid eidolon that looks as close to normal human (or other acceptable looking race) would give the OP potentially an all day disguise self ability.

Azothath I think the aesthetic the OP is going for is a woman’s body with the lower body of a snake (check google images for lamia and you will find many pictures in this style) though that may not match well with the pathfinder version of the creature. In this case a long flowing dress may pass at a distance but will probably not hold up to close scrutiny. A hat of disguise at 1500gp would be the easiest long term way of dealing with the problem although would still fail with highly perceptive individuals. If you want a physical change to cover this problem a 2 level dip in Vigilante will allow you to take the Malleable Flesh talent that functions as Disguise Self but actually physically changes the body. Other than various methods to gain Disguise Self some sort of polymorph ability is your best bet I would think.

If you’re looking at increasing your carrying capacity then a dip into Void Kineticist would help. Their Basic Chaokinesis ability can increase your carrying capacity by 50% for one hour but no limits on number of uses per day so basically constant unless sleeping or unconscious.

This thread was started in response to a discussion on this topic in the Advice forum. Part of that discussion was if it was possible to gain multiple attacks on the same limb can u make multiple natural attacks from the same limb as part of a full attack action or are you limited to one attack per limb. It was also a discussion on a build for a character meant for PFS if that’s relevant to the question.

The FAQ that is being referred to is this one.

Half-Orc--Toothy: Does this alternate racial trait stack with the Razortusk feat (page 168) granting you two bite attacks?

This is one of those areas where we tried to get at the same idea multiple ways. In this case, the answer is no, unless you somehow manage to get an extra mouth. Generally speaking, natural weapons can only be used once per round each. This also applies to the Animal Fury barbarian rage power (Core Rulebook, page 32).

Possessed Hand and Hand’s Autonomy can both benefit TWF if you have the spare feats for them.

Themonkeyfish - in answer to your questions it seems understood that combining a bite and a gore attack is allowed as multiple monster stat blocks have bites and gores together. As for multiple attacks per limb being disallowed, on a quick check I found this FAQ that is related.

Half-Orc--Toothy: Does this alternate racial trait stack with the Razortusk feat (page 168) granting you two bite attacks?

This is one of those areas where we tried to get at the same idea multiple ways. In this case, the answer is no, unless you somehow manage to get an extra mouth. Generally speaking, natural weapons can only be used once per round each. This also applies to the Animal Fury barbarian rage power (Core Rulebook, page 32).

If you post your questions to the Rules forum you may get a more thorough answer.

The problem is that there’s a lack of concrete wording on whether or not melee weapons with a range increment count as ranged weapons or not. Everything kinda hinges on that. This is where ur GM is going to have to make a ruling on it one way or the other for your group. I don’t think it’s game breaking to say that they are for the purposes of class features like this but that’s just my opinion nothing more.

If the base Magus’ spell combat works with thrown melee weapons (and I’m not 100% convinced this is the intent) then Card Caster might be the way to go as its version of arcane pool and spellstrike both work with thrown weapons (not just cards).

My advice would be to choose eldritch archer and make something like the tube arrow shooter your arcane bond. It’s a valid choice and is worn so that’s fine with not having to make concentration checks and leaves the hand free allowing throw daggers with it if you like. I think the general consensus is that you can use thrown weapons with eldritch archer abilities. Just don’t make one your arcane bond. The tube arrow shooter is also a martial weapon so you don’t need exotic weapon proficiency.

You may want to search for already existing threads that deal with this subject. There are a few and at least one directly conflicts with the interpretations given in this thread.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43x9p?Spell-Combat-Thrown-Starknife#1

Here’s a link to one(sorry ur gonna have to copy/paste the link)

One line of interpretation puts daggers and similar weapons in a kind of limbo. Yes they can be used by an eldritch archer for most class abilities but since they are listed as melee weapons they can’t be your arcane bond. However they also can’t be used by the base magus for ranged spellstrike/spell combat. These are not my opinions just some of the interpretations out there. My advice would be to choose another weapon if u want to do ranged magus abilities.

Not only that but you seem to be trying to stack multiple natural attacks on each limb. While it may be possible to POSSESS multiple attacks on a limb you may only use one attack per appendage in a given turn. I’m fairly confident you can use both a bite and a gore attack together that’s going to hard cap you at 6 attacks unless you acquire more appendages capable of mounting natural attacks.

Just gonna point out that if you make all of your level 1 characters summoners with humanoid eidolons (that are going to have better combat stats than your NPCs and are expendable) you will double the size of your army. Or optionally take hunters or druids that get animal companions. Either works.

Depending on your fighter build You may want to consider taking a 5th level of fighter before going Barbarian as this will open up a lot of options by giving you access to Advanced Weapon Training.

If you take one of the elemental native outsider races (or count as one with abilities like the Planar Heritage feat) like Sylph or Undine you qualify for Elemental Strike feat which is like Arcane Strike but deals elemental damage instead of magic damage and scales with character level not class level. Also there are quite a few Wild Shape related feats that might be of interest to you such as Planar Wild Shape and the Weapon Shift feat line. Some of the Style feats may be of interest as well. Dragon Style for instance allows you to charge through difficult terrain and allies spaces. Blood Frenzy Style gives a +2 bonus to STR and CON (and a -2 to AC) after you take damage in combat. This bonus is untyped so stacks with rage. It requires you to have the aquatic subtype so u would need to take a race like Undine with the amphibious alternate racial trait. You can avoid this by dipping a level into either Unarmed Fighter or Master of Many Styles monk as both grant a style feat without needing to meet the prerequisites.

It would be nice if AoN updated the Crossblooded overview to reflect this but thems the breaks. Not the only error either. I’ve noticed that the altered class features on the overview of the Agathiel Vigilante archetype doesn’t match the actual text of the archetype at all.

I’ll just point out that in the text of the Crossblooded archetype it describes how you choose which powers you gain from your two bloodlines it never explicitly states that any of the bloodline class features are altered or replaced. The only thing that is described as being altered is spells known. On Archives of Nethys in the overview of archetypes for sorcerer the only class feature listed as altered or replaced is Spells Known. This may be an error on their part but that’s the source I used when suggesting they would stack.

As it happens Razmiran Priest and Crossblooded Sorcerer are archetypes that can stack with each other. This would give you a second bloodline that you could choose from one of the approved bloodlines. Not sure if this interests you but there you go.

I would think that a Ring of Eloquence would be a benefit for any wildshaping Druid as it allows you to speak normally while wildshaped.

You can dip a level into elemental ascetic kineticist to get always on kinetic fist adding 1d6 damage to all ur natural attacks. A level dip in elementalist shifter lets you add 1d6 energy damage to all melee attacks as a swift action. Taking accomplished sneak attacker will negate the loss of two levels of rogue. VMC cavalier with order of the blossom will add an extra 4d6 sneak attack by level cap. Dip a level in snakebite striker brawler to add another 1d6 sneak attack.

This may be a little outside the box but have u considered the Vindictive Bastard Ex-Paladin archetype? I think it may work for the character u want to make. If I were making this character I would consider a Werewolf kin Skinwalker with this Paladin archetype. You could say that the change from say human to Skinwalker and a permanent alignment change that causes your fall from grace are all part of the curse. Vindictive Bastard has some decent class features for a mercenary type character and can fit the former knight background as well. Also this archetype still gets paladin spellcasting so you wouldn’t need a prestige class to get divine spells. I don’t know give it a look-see and see what u think. Might need a dip to get some needed class skills and skill points though.