Some classes are very effective against other classes, for example, Wizards are good at neutralizing Fighters, but Fighters are good at neutralizing Rogues, and Rogues in Turn are good at neutralizing Wizards. In your opinions, for your favorite classes please give reasons as to what class do you think they are strongest against, and what class do you think they are weakest against.
My Example:
I think Wizards are strongest against Fighters because they can attack the fighters typical weak defenses (Will, Reflex) and either immobilize or enchant them to use against the enemy.
I think Wizards are weakest against Rogues, because often the Rogue acts before the Wizard, is hard for the Wizard to target, has the mobility to reach the Wizard, and the Rogue's attacks can often kill the Wizard in a single round.
Your thoughts and opinions please,
Thanks,
C. Rowe
Rogues are very weak against wizards, even more so than fighters, because wizards attack the rogue's typical weak defenses (Fort, Will), a rogue who acts before a wizard just dies a little later, is easy for the wizard to target, lacks any kind of mobility and 1d4+1 is never enough to kill a wizard in a single round.
The rogue dies to just about any class one-on-one because their damage comes from meeting one of two conditions: enemy is denied Dex to their AC (hard to do as a rogue) or flanked (impossible one-on-one) and wizards can shut down sneak attack entirely with just blur. Even a monk could easily handle a rogue one-on-one.
Now for the real wizard killer, it's all barbarian, and I don't just mean AM BARBARIAN. A well built barbarian can make the saves, has mobility to reach the wizard and actual abilities to handle a wizard once he gets there.
I believe in the case provided above, the rogue is thought to have the drop on the wizard and possible gets multiple Sneak Attacks. That might be enough of an edge to beat the Wizard, it might not.
Now, a Monk might have a better chance, and an Inquisitor with the Rage Subdomain could be a real caster-killer.
Depends on the level, but a Tetori monk who has abundant step and the ability to negative freedom of movement will school anyone. Grab, pin, and pummel. Next turn, pin, and snap bones. After that, its academic.
I made one as a villain and turn a fighter into mush with that combo. Also took the snake style so the fighter who was already at a huge disadvantage would give 2 attacks of opportunity when he missed.
And as its a combat maneuver, not an attack, it even gets by the barbarian's come and get me.
It varies by build, preparation, and time level as well as house rules, use of the FAQ, and plenty of other odds and ends. Pathfinder, however, was not built for class versus class combat.
This is of course all true, but it is also true that it is inefficient to fight fire with fire. Tanks vs Tanks doesn't work, Controller vs Controller, etc You don't want to fight fire with fire, you want to fight fire with water. Combined arms theory for Pathfinder if you will.
I guess what I am trying to poll, is for class X that you have experience with, if you encountered an opposing party, which classes/roles would you feel strong in engaging with that class, and which classes/roles would you be worried about attacking your class. Obivously, they are a million variables to this, and builds can make anything pretty effective against anything, so it it all subjective, I am merely looking for your opinion, which may vary from others (ie, that the Rogue can engage anything)
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Cleric, wizard, other "Vancian" who needs "junk" (spellbooks, clerical focus, etc) ...p0wned by stealth/invisibility(etc) rogue or bard who steals equipment and exercise snipe-&-run tactics until target is nickeled and dimed to death.
Stealth/invisibility(etc) rogue ...p0owned by barbarian with Scent rage power and Blind Fighting. (Provided the rogue actually sticks around instead of vamoosing.)
Barbarians ...p0wned by uber AC S&B fighters (especially dwarves) who win wars of attrition.
Fighters ...p0wned by spellcasters who can Scry or otherwise continually observe him and wait to strike when he's at his most vulnerable. Especially vulnerable to non-Vancian casters with lots of blaster spells which target touch-AC or reflex saves.
In order to teleport, you need to have been to the place. I may be wrong of course, since I've never resorted to Scry & Fry myself.
And all it takes is a Furious weapon and Improved Sunder to start taking apart that S&B Fighter's armor class. Yay for Sundering!
Honestly, Monks are the bane of wizards. They can typically act first, have good saves, very mobile, and will get in the Wizards face and mess up his casting.
Monks, appropriately built, can be the bane of any and all classes. They could very easily sunder that fighters armor, steal that barbarians axe, find and beat the hell out of that rogue etc. I think the classes a Monk would have the most trouble with, is against another monk, or a paladin. The paladin brings enough combat, defense, and healing to the table to simply outlast the monk, while he'd be fighting himself if he faced another monk.
I disagree with the monk being the bane of another class unless specifically built to take on that one class, but the game makes it not to hard to do X when X is all your character is built for.
If monk waste his time sundering armor he will probably be a dead monk, but a lot of that depends on the opposing build which are too many and varied to account for.
Probably monks are a pretty weak choice in order to build a character that is able to 1-on-1 all other classes.
Monks are great against Wizards and Sorcorers, not so much against Clerics and Druids.
It's Stunning Fist that makes the Arcanes squirt tears like Nancy Kerrigan. That's about half (not really half, but you get the point) as effective against the Divine full casters.
One on one monks get their lunch money stolen by fighters unless they have Imp. Disarm which makes the fight kinda " swingy".
You still have to hit him; and if he's wearing adamantine plate, it's going to take a long time, all the while he's pummeling you easily with his worst iterative attacks because you're a barbarian and your AC sucks.
Actually, he just has to beat his CMD, and with Strength Surge and Rage, that is pretty easy. Add in the Smasher Rage Power to ignore the Hardness of the Adamantine plate.