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Only certain archer builds have any effectiveness in this encounter.

Charging it is very risky as it has a range of 20' and can grab with it's tentacle as an attack of opportunity, ending the charge while still 20' away. By RAW you are not allowed to attack it in this case unless you have 20' reach. While allowing an attack on the tentacle that's grappling you is certainly a reasonable house rule, I don't think it should be allowed to do a lot of damage as it's only a minor part of the monster itself.

Spells are ineffective because it has huge SR. Without feats you have only a 20% chance of successfully casting a spell at it, before saving throws. A paladin's Litany of Righteousness is outright incapable of beating the SR unless you have feats. It also has high resistance to acid, which is usually the fallback plan for casters. You're better off summoning monsters, or buffing the party with freedom of movement etc.

Hi! I'm thinking about checking out Pathfinder Society and I wanted to use this Golden Legionnaire build I've been working on - the Golden Paw. I've never played PFS before and I know they are pretty strict about alterations, so I wanted to have a solid plan before heading out.

I think Cavalier meshes really well with Golden Legionnaire. Being mounted all the time, I always have a move action to spare for Authoritative Command, which transforms a situational ability into inspire courage. I can contribute in combat with devastating charges, knocking opponents prone, interesting buffs, and strong defensive abilities to save allies in trouble (Here, have +14 AC). Out of combat, I plan on assisting skill checks with my Helpful halfling race trait, and a decent spread of skills ranks of my own.

Halfling (Outrider alternate trait)

Order of the Paw - Cavalier (Gendarme) 5 / Golden Legionnaire 10

20 point buy:

STR 15
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 7
CHA 9

Traits: Helpful, Chosen of Chaldira

Feats:
1) Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack [Gendarme]
3) Combat Reflexes
5) Wheeling Charge, Spirited Charge [Gendarme]
7) Horse master, Stand Still [GL]
9) Power Attack, Bodyguard [GL]
11) Trick Riding, In Harm's Way [GL]
13) Paired Opportunist, Swift Aid [GL]
15) Mounted Skirmisher

Mount: Wolf [Charger Archetype] (After reaching level 7, potions of reduce animal when necessary)

Feats:

1) Power Attack
2) Improved Overrun
5) Charge Through
8) Combat Reflexes
10) Greater Overrun
13) Paired Opportunist

Over the first few levels I assemble the standard charging kit. I specced the wolf in such a way that I can reach the target that needs to die, either by overruning a mook or by using wheeling charge around party members/obstacles. I plan to be overruning a lot, though I understand this becomes ineffective at later levels. Paired Opportunist works well here because Golden Legionnaire has 3 separate abilities that give him extra AoO, and tacking on +4 to hit and a wolf bite (trip) could be rather good. I took the Charger Archetype and no armor proficiency because I can't really afford the wolf to be slowed down by encumbrance before level 7, at which point a mithral breastplate barding will be reduced to 0 armor check penalty. Even mithral full plate barding becomes 0 ACP, +6 max dex at level 15, so who needs proficiency?

Am I missing anything important? Have I made any mistakes? What do you think of the build? Feedback welcome :)

I know this thread is old but I had to comment on some of the things said here:

1) I disagree with the interpretation that all the aid another abilities would stack. A lot of them say "aid another gives +3" or "aid another gives +4" and to me this clearly means that they are replacing each other (not adding together!), and only the highest would apply. I think this was by design to prevent exactly the kind of cheese proposed here. The ones that say "aid another action increases by +1" of course would stack normally. Also only this last kind would apply to "swift aid", since it is a replacement of its own.

2) Concerning Lance, power attack, and furious focus. Remember that you can only power attack for -1/+3 or use furious focus when you're wielding a weapon with both hands. So you can do this, but not if you want to use a shield. If you want confirmation look up stat blocks of cavaliers from official supplements.

3) Vital Strike can not be used with charge. From the faq:

"Can Vital Strike be used on a charge?

No. Vital Strike can only be used as part of an attack action, which is a specific kind of standard action."

You may claim that you weren't using the charge action, your mount did. But if that were the case, Spirited Charge would never work: "When mounted and using the charge action, you deal double damage with a melee weapon (or triple damage with a lance)"

A simple rule is that if you're getting the +2/-2 and would have received any bonuses that apply to a charge, then you're charging.

Howie23 is entirely right, but there's another extremely common scenario that this also makes ridiculous. Any spellcaster who gains a Familiar and uses the Valet Familiar archetype can take advantage of this and only have to burn a feat slot on the caster. Get a rat or similarly-sized familiar, keep it in the backpack, and technically this feat triggers and you have a caster who will never suffer an AoO. RAI, absolutely not. RAW, yup.

At the very least they should change it so that it only works on threatened squares. I can maybe see the mount/rider combo working (though it's probably overpowered), but these other uses are nauseating.

Aid another is used against spell effects when the spell tells you that you can. For example, you can use the aid another action to wake someone from a sleep spell. There are other cases as well.

According to the SRD, in order to do the Aid Another action:

"Aid Another
In melee combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard action."

The bodyguard feat, as I understand it, allows you to do this as an immediate action at the cost of an attack of opportunity.

Everything else about this feat also suggests that you need to be able to threaten the enemy. From the flavor text "Your swift strikes ward off enemies attacking nearby allies.", to the fact that it consumes an attack of opportunity.

The plus side is that you don't need to be adjacent to the enemy, merely threaten him.

Did you ever get around to figuring the subdomains for Chaldira Zuzaristan? I want her to be my new character's deity and it would be nice to know :)

Thanks