My party has 4 PC and I'd like to know which class would be the best for me taking in account what my party already have (Barbarian, Bard, Wizard). If you could rate my 8 options from 1-10 it would be really nice.
1. Fighter TWF
2. Fighter Archer
3. Rogue TWF (Perhaps multiclass)
4. Ranger Archer (Perhaps multiclass)
5. Arcane Trickster (Rogue + Sorcerer)
6. Arcane Archer (Fighter + Sorcerer)
7. Cleric Reach
8. Paladin Archer
Cleric > Paladin Archer > Ranger Archer (don't multiclass)
Then there's a pretty big gap, followed by:
Arcane Archer > Arcane Trickster
Then an incredibly huge gap ending with:
Fighter Archer > Fighter TWF > Rogue TWF
You guys need a divine caster--that's pretty obvious. Clerics get 9th level spells, so they are automatically better than any choice without 9th level spells.
Paladin Archers are extremely deadly, but can then also fill some of the missing divine role. They get most of the important divine spells eventually and provide some healing/removal.
Ranger Archers are just as good as Paladin Archers in combat, and obviously are more useful in non-combat situations with their extra skills, their pet, their special abilities, etc., but their spell list is much less useful to the party as a whole (Ranger spellcasting is a lot more selfish than Paladin casting).
Then there's a gap because they are significantly better choices than anything that comes after. Arcane Archer is useful if only because Archery is powerful and spellcasting is powerful, so while focusing on one or the other is better, having both is certainly better than having neither. Arcane Trickster for the same reason. Rogues suck, but magic is useful no matter what, so it'll still contribute.
Then there's a tremendous gap in effectiveness because spellcasting > no spellcasting, and every other class in the game > Fighter, Rogue, and Monk.
The Fighter comes first because Archery in Pathfinder is overpowered and a Fighter archer is only just a little bit behind Paladin and Ranger Archers in combat itself, but they do not get to be top tier choices like Paladins and Rangers because they bring absolutely nothing but ranged damage to the table, while Paladins get so much defense, healing, and other support while Rangers get action economy (a pet), tons of skills, weird special abilities, etc.
There's almost another huge gap, because TWF is so hard to pull off for non Rangers (it's pretty good for Rangers, though, because they can ignore the stat pre-requisites and semi-dump Dex), but it's not as wide as the gap between a spellcaster and a non-spellcaster.
Rogues are obsolete. Ninja is as literally a "better Rogue" as you could possibly publish. Meanwhile, Vivisectionist Alchemists, a couple kinds of Ranger, and quite a few Bard archetypes are doing rogue stuff PLUS their own stuff. So, Fighter takes the edge here.
Hmm, an ideal party? Normally I would say a mix of clerics and inquisitors, but no repeats, so...
1. A Zen Archer 1/Inquisitor(Preacher) X of Irori with Restoration subdomain. He takes Wisdom in the Flesh trait to get Disable Device as a class skill, applying wisdom instead of dex. Excellent ranged damage, and Preacher and Restoration give him some abilities the whole party can appreciate.
2. Aasimar Life Oracle X with Scion of Humanity and Deathless. Arguably (please don't argue) the best healer, we can at least agree he is very good at what he does. Focused on buffs and generally keeping people alive, it will take a lot to bring down his allies.
3. Sword and Board Paladin X. There are plenty of builds to make Paladins a hearty front-line fighter/tank. If you're fighting evil, and you probably are, the Paladin has a lot to offer.
4. Summoner X. A vanilla Summoner offers some great battlefield control without having to do anything fancy. At low levels the Eidolon can be a great front line fighter, and later the summons will fill the gap as the Eidolon's combat effectiveness falls a bit behind. At later levels you could change the Eidolon into a skill monkey, or a mount, or...whatever. Also, there aren't many feats a Summoner really NEEDS to be good, so invest in some crafting feats and outfit your party on the cheap.
5. Arcane Sorcerer X. I'm not going to argue about the superiority of Wizards over Sorcerers...this is really just personal preference. Even with the Summoner, you'll need an arcane caster, as Summoners have so few spells per day. It's possible to optimize a build for max damage at low levels that still has plenty to offer at higher levels. Evocation isn't just for blasting.
6. Monk X. If you still need someone to fill in the gaps, why not Monk? Go Flowing for battlefield control, Master of Many Styles for multiple unarmed damage types, Zen Archer if you need more ranged damage (with the other 5...do you really?), or Martial Artist to avoid stuffy alignment restrictions and just punch things really hard.
Most combinations of these in 4 or 5 will still be freakin awesome.
I've played a game when ran a different type of cleric. We each worshipped different gods and had different skill sets. To say we curbstomped everything in our path is a understatement.
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We are a 4 person party playing with a Monk, a Sorceror, a Gunslinger/Alchemist, and a switch hitter (mostly archery) Ranger/Rogue. Our weird combination has done really well so far (we're only level 2, about to level up next session).
We recently added a Ranger/Fighter for some muscle (player is really attached to Ranger class). I'm curious to see how it works out with two rangers, one focusing on archery & the other melee.
well I would say that both reading comprehension and spelling just took a time-out
6 TWF rouges. Lets just say combats are quick ;)
You mean because they TPK so quickly? ;)
1. Human Summoner with quadraped pouncing eidolon - add in skilled and fly evolutions when not adding in more combat potential, summoner focuses on some of its nifty control spells, and suport/buffs for the eidolon. Summons crittors with sla in a pinch.
2. Combat Focused druid with either big cat or pouncing dino animal companion in custom barding). Another hard hitting heavily armored pet, with the druid who has divine casting and can eventually turn into a killing machine himself.
3. Conjuration Wizard, focusing on battle field control and summoning
4. Arcane Duelist bard - (bardic music is going to pay dividends in this party, and he will be able to cover the face roll and lost of different skills.
5. Archery Focused Traper Ranger - just in case you really need someone to explicately disable traps (instead of just walk a summon through them) and to add ranged support.
6. Sacred Sheild Paladin - I dont know if you've ever had one of these in a large party, but with bastion of good up, its damn near impossible to kill characters that are already fairly tough.
End Result: Lots of overlap for all of the criteria mentioned (which is a personal preference for me), lots of spell casting, a ton of combat potential, every skill under the sun will be covered, a big action economy advantage with the animal companion, eidolon and summons, and excellent buffing from a number of different sources.