I am still a relative newcomer to Pathfinder Society (PFS) play as I haven't been able to play very much since joining earlier this year. I have only played 5 times so far, but I intend to pick that up quite a bit soon. I have been playing only 1 character for PFS so far (a Half-Elf Magus) and now that he is well into 2nd level I want to add to and diversify the characters I can bring to the table just like all the other players at the PFS games I play in. Since my magus will be leaving the lower level tiers soon, I know I should have at least one character at 1st level ready to go in case I can only get into a lower tier game (I've seen that happen sometimes to other players). I am told I can have as many PFS characters as I want, but I have only made a few to satisfy my potential urges for roleplaying certain types of characters. I am an experienced player, GM, and designer; however, I am not really an optimizer and I feel it is always a good thing to get a fresh perspective on things. Also, I have either never played these classes or have limited experience with them.
Anyway, that is just my longwinded way of asking folks to critique my builds for the new characters I created for PFS play. The builds are an Inquisitor, an Alchemist, a Ninja, and a multiclass Barbarian/Samurai.
First up is Zirul the Zealot, Iroran Inevitable Inquisitor. He is a Half-Elf with the Ancestral Arms racial trait giving him proficiency with the meteor hammer. He is a member of the Lantern Lodge faction. He is half Tian and is highly curious about his heritage as his mother was a forlorn elf and his father was very stoic and for reasons unknown to Zirul refused to discuss where he came from other than to name the place (Quain) and teach him how to use a meteor hammer; the specialty of his father's martial art. His father was a martial artist from a defeated clan with many enemies. He came to the Inner Sea hounded by enemies the whole way until they finally lost his trail at Absalom. He then met Zirul's mother in his travels as a merchant guardsman. Zirul joined the pathfinder society in an effort to learn about the elven and Tian past that his parents would not or could not discuss with him, while remaining faithful to the faith of Irori that his father raised him in. He wants to better himself by learning more about his heritage.
His traits are Armor Expert and Body of Wisdom (focusing on Acrobatics). If I am not misinterpreting the rules of PFS and the Core Rulebook, as an inquisitor or Irori he gets the Improved Unarmed Strike feat at no additional cost.
Alignment: LN
Deity: Irori
Domain: Law (Inevitable Subdomain)
STR 16, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 8
Teamwork Feats to focus on primarily
3rd Level: Precise Strike
6th Level: Coordinated Maneuvers or Pack Attack
9th Level: Outflank
12th Level: Coordinated Maneuvers or Pack Attack
Feat Selection
1st Level: Combat Reflexes
3rd Level: Snake Style
5th Level: Antagonize
7th Level: Power Attack
9th Level: Two-Weapon Fighting
11th Level: Weapon Focus (meteor hammer)
Ability Score Increase
4th Level: DEX
8th Level: DEX
12th Level: STR
The idea with this character's tactics is to take advantage of the synergy made by using combat reflexes, a high DEX, the meteor hammer (a reach weapon with a +1 to AC that can shorten its reach as a free action to become a double weapon), and using Antagonize and Command (from the Inevitable Subdomain with the level-adjustable DC) all together to make the enemy come to him and his reach weapon with judgments and bane. The defensive tactics emphasize gaining a bonus to using Sense Motive checks for AC thanks to Snake Style with a bonus from Stern Gaze. The high DEX and WIS combined with Cunning Initiative means he will go early more often and be flatfooted less often.
Reserved for Alchemist build.
Reserved for Ninja build.
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Reserved for Barbarian/Samurai build.
This is a Human Monk build with the Drunken Master, Master of Many Styles, and Qinggong Monk archetypes. He is Tian and a member of the Lantern Lodge faction.
There are actually two ways I was thinking of going with this character. The first focuses more on just being a drunken master, while the second way focuses on gaining elemental fist and using one of the elemental styles. I like the Marid style. Where these two ways differ I will detail the drunken monk stuff before a slash and the elemental fist way after the slash.
I was thinking of taking Honored Fist of the Society for one of his traits, but haven't yet decided what the second trait should be. His bonus feat from being human will be Combat Reflexes.
Alignment: LN
STR 14/16, DEX 13, CON 17/15, INT 10, WIS 15, CHA 8
Feat Selection
1st Level Monk Feat: Snake Style/Dragon Style
1st Level Feat: Panther Style
2nd Level Monk Feat: Snake Fang/Dragon Ferocity
3rd Level Feat: Panther Claw/Elemental Fist
4th Level Qinggong Ability: Barkskin
5th Level Qinggong Ability: True Strike
5th Level Feat: Fast Drinker/Marid Style
6th Level Monk Feat: Crane Style/Marid Spirit
7th Level Feat: Power Attack
8th Level Monk Feat: Dodge/Panther Claw
9th Level Feat: Crane Wing/Dragon Roar
10th Level Monk Feat: Crane Riposte/Marid Coldsnap
11th Level Feat: Panther Parry
Ability Score Increase
4th Level: CON/WIS
8th Level: WIS
12th Level: DEX
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One thing you should be aware of with your inquisitor is, that when you choose a two-handed double weapon in PFS you'll have a price cap as if you have one weapon, but you will have to pay for both ends of the weapon as if it is two different two weapons.
For example if you have 36 fame the maximum item cost is 23000 gp, that means you could get a +3/+1 meteor hammer or two weapons with a +3 ench. bonus each. That makes a double weapon a bad choice in PFS even though it has a nice flavor.
Unfortunately, after an hour, you can no longer edit a post.
Master of Many Styles doesn't allow you to ignore style feat prereqs for ALL of your feats. You can only ignore prereqs for your bonus MONK style feats (1st, 2nd, 6th, etc).
I assume you are referring to elemental fist? The archetype isn't what lets me do that; it is the Dragon Ferocity feat that lets me ignore prerequisites for Elemental Fist.
Thanks, Cheapy. Obviously, I did not know that about the edit function on these boards until it was too late. I will add the other builds in the morning.
First: PFS does not require much (if anything) in the way of optimization. Indeed, playing a character that's excessively optimized is a great way to ensure that you're bored and everyone else at the table is generally unhappy.
That said, you're building Monks. :)
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Xiao Lo, Crazy Chemyst and Mental Monk
This is my mad scientist character and I am really psycyhed to play this guy. I forgot to mention previously that this concept is actually a multiclass Alchemist/Monk with the Internal Alchemist, Mindchemist, and Master of Many Styles archetypes. His first two levels are Alchemist and his 3rd and 4th levels are Monk. After that, he goes Alchemist the rest of the way.
His personality will be sort of an amalgam of all the amusing and benevolent mad scientist and sensei/teacher characters I have read in books and seen in cinema with a focus on being scatterbrained ("Oooh, shiny!"; "I require a sample of your blood for study"; "I wonder what would happen if I do this..."; "It's okay. It'll be alright - I know things."; "You wouldn't understand unless you were a Alchemist Monk."). Examples include Doctor Who, the coroner from Hawaii Five-0, Yoda (the light-hearted parts), Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes, Mako in "The Big Brawl", Uncle from "Jackie Chan Adventures", Uncle from "Avatar, The Last Airbender", Walter Bishop from Fringe, and many of the characters from Girl Genius. I also have a list of Chinese proverbs that I will use for him; only I will change them to make no sense where there was some before. I might even have him try to explain the proverbs scientifically and fail at it. Communication is not his strong suit and his quirks make him difficult for others to understand (hence, the low CHA).
He is a Human of Tian ethnicity and his bonus feat for being human is Throw Anything (since he loses it from one of his archetypes and this build needs the feat). He is a member of the Lantern Lodge faction and his traits are Mind Over Matter and World Traveler (Sense Motive is the selected skill). His weapons of choice are bombs.
Alignment: LG
STR 10, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 19, WIS 12, CHA 8
Ability Score Increase: INT all the way, every time.
Feat Selection
1st Level Feat: Splash Weapon Mastery
2nd Level Alchemist Discovery: Infuse Mutagen
3rd Level (Monk 1st) Feat: Kirin Style
3rd Level Feat: Snake Style
4th Level (Monk 2nd) Feat: Kirin Strike
5th Level Feat: Weapon Focus (bombs)
6th Level (Alchemist 4th) Discovery: Tanglefoot Bomb
7th Level Feat: Extra Discovery (Smoke Bomb)
8th Level (Alchemist 6th) Discovery: Stink Bomb
9th Level Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting
10th Level (Alchemist 8th) Discovery: Fast Bombs
11th Level Feat: Extra Discovery (Acid Bomb)
12th Level (Alchemist 10th) Discovery: Force Bomb
The idea with this characters feat build is the focus on Intelligence enhancing abilities and abilities that do damage based on INT and to take advantage of the synergy created by them. Kirin Style and Kirin Strike allow him to take advantage of his high INT and synergizes well with Cognatogen (from Mindchemist) for adding damage to bombs. Perfect Recall (from Mindchemist) make knowledge checks even easier on top of an already high and sometimes enhanced INT from the Cognatogen. The two level dip into Monk hurts the damage dice for the bombs, but picking up the Kirin Style feat chain allows him to double his INT bonus to damage from his bombs. With such a high and often enhanced INT from his bombs, I think that is worth the trade off - though I admit I am not a good number cruncher and haven't looked that closely at the numbers. I just like the flavor of this character a lot.
Snake Style is great for defense and can also benefit from the cognatogen at later levels. Gaining Uncanny Dodge at 8th level from Internal Alchemist is also nice for defense.
Screw number crunching, that concept is sweet.
Igmar Ironguts and his horse, Garnet
This is a Dwarven Urban Barbarian/Samurai (Order of the Warrior). He is a member of the Lantern Lodge and one of the traits I have chosen for him is Mind Over Matter. I haven't decided yet on the other trait, but I was thinking the adopted one; it would fit his background story. His primary weapon is the katana. He will start as a Samurai and alternate between Samurai and Urban Barbarian with Samurai at odd levels and barbarian at even levels, until he reaches 4th level with Samurai at 7th level. After that, it's Barbarian all the way.
He is an orphaned dwarf who was raised in Tian Xia and has come to the Inner Sea region in order to discover more about his own kind. He joined the Pathfinder Society as a means of doing so. I haven't worked out too much else, yet.
I was thinking of making the horse, Garnet, a mule instead (at least in flavor, if not rules-wise) and playing up an antagonistic relationship between him and Garnet.
Alignment: NG
STR 16, DEX 12, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 11
Ability Score Increase: The first two will be for STR with the third being CHA
Feat Selection
I haven't really decided what feats to select other than the typical weapon focus, power attack, etc. I was thinking of going with emphasizing his durability as a character concept. Perhaps he should take feats like Diehard, Endurance, and maybe some dwarf-specific feats.
I can't find my notes on my Ninja build, so I will have to add that after I find them sometime after I get home.
I do remember though that I wanted to do a high DEX and CHA build as a Half-Elf with Ancestral Arms (Scimitar) and take the Dancing Dervish feat. Despite being a ninja, this character was going to be from the Cheliax faction and be Neutral or Lawful Neutral. Ninja is really just for the mechanics of the concept and for flavor with this character. This character is an Inner Sea native and has very little, if anything, to do with Tian Xia.
Beyond that, at one point I was considering a femme fatale character with the Ninja talent that lets you hide weapons and draw them out quicker. Perhaps take Two-Weapon Fighting and draw a hidden weapon for surprise... Hidden weapons could include a poisoned dagger, garrott hidden in the seam of her clothes, stiletto disguised as a hair pin, a blowgun disguised as a flute, etc.