was suggested to bring my post from advice to here.
Character
Name: The Hound Lord.. real name is unknown at this time
Alignment: Unknown
Class: Calvilier, Order of the Cocketrice
Race: Human
Starting stats
Str: 15
Dex: 13
Con: 13
Int: 14
Wis: 10?
Cha: 16
Traits: Brigand, Defender of Society (Dm handwaved the limits), Heirloom weapon -bastard sword, Natural born leader.
Racials: Eye for Talent, Heart of the Wilds
Feat: Extra Traits
Bonus Feat: Precise Strike
Skills: Diplomacy, Indimidate, Perform: Oratory, Perfession: Solider and the rest go wherever. Thinking linguistis to draft up charters and other contracts.
Homerules put escape artist into acrobatics, and jump,climb, and swim become athletics and con based.
Goals
I plan on making the character king. He is going battle herald, and taking leadership feat. The cohort is going to mimic his stuff taking similar teamwork feats.
Overall, he puts up a semi-noble front, but fights dirty. He'll challanged the biggest bady out there, and then initiate a tactic to get his allies to flank the foe gaining the benefits of precise strike.
Half-orc Oracle Nature/Haunted
Gnome Summoner
Half-elf theif Skill monkey build
Half-elf fighter smack things.
The rest of the party is set. My previous character and another ally died. I think he is going monk but I can't really be sure right now.
I'm defently going battle herald. I want that increase to leadership the most
Oracle switches between them. She prefers to melee.
Summoner.. I don't really know. Sometimes he is riding his pet, other times he isn't.
We do point buy because the DM doesn't like it when one person is great and another person sucks because of random die rolls. It also is to make certain that all our stats are "legal" too.
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If your doing poin buy. You need to have all but your primary stat at a even number. And as you level only put points in to your primary stat. Kingmaker caps at level 16 so you can count on 4 points there.
With your limited bardic abilitys. Plus the limited roll of Cha in your build. Max starting Cha for a build like this I put at 12 to 14. Even then 14 is high for the type of build your going for.
Heirloom weapon is a realy good trait if you will have the ability to up grad the one weapon. For the most part in thes AP that will not hapen. It's very posible later in the game but from start to around level 10 ther is not realy the ability there. Becous of how the AP runs but that is somthing you will need to talk to your GM about.
Im guessing your thinking you can take Boon Companion, But you can't. Becous it functions as but dose not give you Animal Companion class ability.
Mount: This mount functions as a druid’s animal companion.
Boon Companion
Prerequisites: Animal companion or familiar class ability.
Unless you got your DM aprovel first. If not I wold drop Eye for Talent.
From the talents you have taken you only need two. Brigand and Natural Bourn Leader. The other two are ok but not as important. Nothing you can't just make in to back story.
If your group dose not have a character for doing socal skills. I recomend maxing them out.
Going with falcata is a good idea. I know people don't like it, but no other one handed weapon can do that kind of damage.
Just looking over the character I can see what your trying to do. Over all it looks good. You are trying to fill to meny hols with one character. You should focus more on the bard abilitys or on the Caviler abilitys. As it stands your a nice mix of both. Lacking focus will not show up till later in the game some where around level 10 to 12. That is when the monsters become more powerful compared to there CR incress. By then it's to late with the lack of focus in the character it will not function as you want it to.
I have looked at Battle Herald my self. My over all view of the class. Weak Bard. Good Caviler. That means it's good as a combat heavy Caviler adding some nice things to it. As a bard ability class it realy lacks compared to a full bard. My best suggestion with this build is going Caviler heavy and bard only as needed. With what you need to start BH. Caviler9/Bard1/Battle Herald10 is proby the best of the splits you can get.
Yes, I'm going the 9/1/10.
My focus is actually more towards later game when I'm a battle herald. I would get 8+cha+cha+(2xlevel)-2 rounds per day of inspiring commands. My cohort will always be at his maximum level (unless he needs more exp.) and my kingdom would have a fairly large amount of people that would support my endeavors.
Once I hit level 7, and have my cohort, she will have the same teamwork feats as I do. Outflank+Precise Strike should be brutal. As such I should go more along the lines of finding a 18-20 weapon and either keen it or take improved critical.
Our rogue is going down the route of master crafter. He is also going to take leadership and run a merchants guild in my kingdom. Chances are between him and his cohort, we should have the magical support we need to provide the party with enhancements. Even so, I'm taking Arcane duelist for my one bard level granting a +1 to damage and making it magic as a swift action.
I'm maxing out the face skills as fast as i can, and making sure I get the pre-req skills out of the way as well. The most important one though is intimidate. If i demoralize foes around me, I gain a better attack ability against them. This is pretty much my first action in combat, so the longer I can make it the better.
I don't see though how +1 to ac and +1 to hit with a weapon that starts off masterwork is somehow able to just be role played through. Pretty much I'll always be in medium armor.. (always bring an armored coat with you.)
Also, the mount functions as an animal companion, therefor all things that effect animal companions do effect it as well except where noted. Even if it doesn't though, Having the mount is still going to be better than having a normal horse. My DM loved the movie Tangled because of the horse, So I'm sure I'm going to have some advantages there if my horse acts similarly.
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The only thing that the Leadership score shows. Is the starting level of the cohort not the maximu level of the cohort. So even if your leadership score shows level 5 cohort. They can still go past that. How ever if you get a new one they start out as level 5.
If your going for team work feets with your cohort and your both combat heavy. Outflank and Prescise Strike are good for the partys rogue. From what you have sayed the rogue is skill focused not combat focused. Shield Wall, Swap Places, Duck and Cover, and Paired Opportunists are better for combat heavy classes.
Yes the Mount functions as animal companion. That dose not mean they get the same feets as a animal companion. Mount and Bound Mount do not qualify for Boon Companion becous they are not animal companions, but function as. It's the same reason you can use spell like abilitys to count as spell casting. And that is they function as spells but are not spells. Not saying your DM could not let you take the feet. Just saying RAW says you can't.
Just one hint if the GM is leting you build your cohort. Don't make it just like your character. You are better off making a cohort that can support your fighting style. Your looking for somthing stronger then the sum of it's parts.
You are melee heavy with a shield = Cohort polearm with reach
You are melee heavy with two handed weapon = Cohort that uses a shield and guards you.
Two Weapon same as two handed weapon
You are range = Cohort with a tower shield that grants you mobile cover.
The only thing that the Leadership score shows. Is the starting level of the cohort not the maximum level of the cohort. So even if your leadership score shows level 5 cohort. They can still go past that. How ever if you get a new one they start out as level 5.
They must, however, remain at least two levels below your character. From the pfsrd:
"If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than your level, the cohort does not gain the new level"
Outflank and precise are good for everyone not just rogue. Gaining a +4 to hit +1d6 damage and the chance that you can crit to make an AoO.
While our rouge isn't combat focus, everyone always maneuvers for flanking. So the ones were we have to be adjacent aren't going to work very well.
With pincer maneuver it becomes even stronger.
Why wouldn't a copy of the character who is based in teamwork feats, not be good? I do plan on having both characters cycling through weapons as the battlefield permits.
Granted there will be some slight differences here and there, since my cohort isn't going to take leadership, nor as many traits. Still trying to decide if my cohort should even go calv or something different. I'm thinking along the lines of a fighter who gets the teamwork feats, but also gets a number of combat maneuver feats.
The only thing that the Leadership score shows. Is the starting level of the cohort not the maximum level of the cohort. So even if your leadership score shows level 5 cohort. They can still go past that. How ever if you get a new one they start out as level 5.
They must, however, remain at least two levels below your character. From the pfsrd:
"If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than your level, the cohort does not gain the new level"
Yep, and if they ever die, I take a hit to my leadership score depending. I kinda expect at least one or two of them to die, but if I have a crazy high leadership score it wouldn't faze me much.
There is also the possibility of gaining a bizarre cohort that I might need a high score for.
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Two of the same characters do not become force multiplyer. Characters that work off of each other become force multipyers. They fill in the gaps.
What is more deadly two shield man, or Shield man and pikeman?
They can both bring 2 weapons to one target. They bouth have high defence. How ever the shield and pike bring defence with high damage. And the Two shield man just bring high defence.
The shield man are working to gether for defence and attacking, but lack any realy heavy hiting weapons.
The shield man with a pikeman working to gether have the defence of the shield and the damage of the pike.
If you ignore teamwork feats, and the fact that two battle heralds can invoke two different inspiring commands at the same time, and base the judgment off one set of equipment they have, then yes. Two similar characters will not become a force multiplier.
However, with teamwork feats... without two characters using them, such feats become useless. Hence making a cohort who also has these feats makes them useful and effective.
The overall goal is not to just have a pike man and a shieldman. But two have two people who switch between weapons as needed. While probably not ultimately as effective as two people heavily trained in spear/shield it is more effective than normal.
Basically, in terms of football, these two would be "the tight ends". Overall control of the battlefield is increased.
Course they do have some differences. The Cohort is Order of the Lion, and pledges their loyalty to me. She will take mostly different inspiring commands. Overall, the big matchup is the Prc, and class selection as well as team work feats.
I'd agree with you if I made straight fighters who had the same abilities only for themselves. (Ie, power attack, cleave, great cleave.. etc.)
Much of this though revolves around the DM not just smacking me with a commoner cohort that he controls and forces to be suicidal.. Cause that would suck :(
Well taking some of your advice, I dropped the extra traits feat and kept natural born leader.
Instead I'm taking mounted combat at level 1, followed by weapon focus.. or vice versa.. (not sure yet.)
My goal is now to go into Calv/Bard/Low-Templar/Battle herald. I'm only going to levels into low-templar, the bonus to leadership is nice, considering I plan on being a rather ruthless king. But my real cake is dirty fighting. Like I said, I don't plan on fighting fair with this guy ever. Even a fair fight will have something tipping it into his favor.
With your limited bardic abilitys. Plus the limited roll of Cha in your build. Max starting Cha for a build like this I put at 12 to 14. Even then 14 is high for the type of build your going for.
I disagree. I actually made a very similar build a human Cavalier: Order of the Cockatrice and I made his highest stat Cha and found the benefits of a dominating Diplomacy score very useful, not to mention Intimidate and Bluff.
Also, if you don't mind taking a bit of a hit on the BaB front you can always dip into the Bard variant Court Bard for crazy bonuses to Diplomacy.
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WOW!!!! Just WOW!
Im truly amazed how people complety miss the point. Playing it and being effective is two difrent things. I know alot of characters players have made. Not all of them are bad. Some of them your like what do you realy bring to the table? What can your character do? O you can use diplomacy? So your not realy a fighter your a bard. And not even a full bard. Your a dite bard that can figth a little better then a bard, but lose the most important abilitys of a bard? I see no use what so ever in a character like that.
I'm neither bard nor fighter. I am the herald of battle. I crush my foes spirit with my indimidating prowess. Then I crush their bodies with my sword. If that is not enough, I command my personal army to crush the bodies of my foes with magic, fist and steel.
I am a Cavalier
Basically, Unlike a bard, I have physical prowess. Unlike a fighter I have the ability to inspire commands and preform even on a social level.
I do not diplomacy with things as much as I intimidate them and then kill them. I carry a small size coffin around, and often make idle threats using it. Used it already to haul a dead chieftin monster and deliver him.
I have the ability to just yell at people within 30 feet around me and demorilize them.
later I'll have abilities to command large groups of creatures in ways that bards can only dream about. Pincer manuver? Plus to flank, plus to ac on AoEs.