Hello, Pathfinderers! I have been DMing D&D for a long time and one of my friends and long time players is notorious for making completely broken character builds in one way or another, either super uber powerful for what I let him use as character creation guidelines or super useless theme characters for settings that he knows aren't going to be a part of the story. Like once he made a really cool Sinbad of the desert type character who was part rogue/ranger/[insert useless desert themed prestige class here] when he knew we were doing a nautical campaign, a completely nautical campaign. I mean it wasn't like a surprise we had been playing the campaign for like 10 levels already and he got bored of his druid so he said he wanted his character to die, I said that's fine make a level 10 character.
Anyway now he is in the DM chair and has been for a few levels now. He took a break from my group to start a new group with another group of friends who's schedule conflicted with my normal gaming group time. So now that my group has finally dissolved completely due to a marriage and a new job for a player in a different city. He invited the last two of us to join his group, so we're like cool let's do it.
And now I want to be evil(ish) and get back at him for all his wacky characters which I definitely didn't mind, being a long time DM I am able to adapt and change the campaign as character concepts come in and out. Some of his character were down right hilarious. Yet now the glove is on the other hand as it were, and I have a character concept that I need help fleshing out the character concept.
My idea is this as it says in the title. A non-combatant character. Someone who is pretty much useless in battle, not a pacifist, just super useless. But is handy in every other aspect of the game. I am thinking something like wizard/loremaster/pathfinder chronicler. With proper spell selection and skill selection I think I can make that happen. I mean someone who is amazing at skill rolls, aid another is a big helpful bit, deep pockets is awesome, definitely do a dual stat of Intelligence and Charisma maybe even be the face of the group. Combine wizard divination spells/secret/lore/AND bardic knowledge Bam this dude knows everything about everything ever. If he doesn't know something it not only doesn't exist, but probably can't.
The DM is allowing one to be 18 and the rest 4d6, so it's pretty solid all the way through. I think I would go through with an Int boosting race, hopefully small, just to further his uselessness in direct combat, or just an old character.
So anyone want to help me flesh out this build at all or think of another build that is equally useless in combat, but also very helpful for the group in non-combat scenarios. My idea is a skill master/buffer/face for the group just useless at combat. He may not be able to hit anything, but he knows just about everything.
Old Age Half Elf or Gnome Wizard 5 (Maybe Abjurist)/Loremaster 3/Pathfinder Chronicler 6. As the base progression and then just go to 11 with the wizard after the chronicler. I know, I know 6 spell levels falling behind is going to hurt, but in all honesty I don't mind. This build focuses on non-combat, and buffs like Cat's Grace and such stay relevant. But that's just my base idea. Thanks! Any thoughts?
Rogue.
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If you're mostly just looking to be a dick, make a Pack Lord Druid and put your 18 in Intelligence. Make each animal something nearly worthless and get a new one with each Druid level so that you have a small zoo of 1st level Companions. Call the small group your "students" and do nothing but direct them and buff them to keep them alive while they contribute next to nothing. Clutter the battlefield with a ton of useless little characters that make your turn last for 20 minutes. Of course, that might result in your being force-fed your own dice...
If you go Rogue, swap out sneak attack and dump Str. That will do well to reduce combat capability.
Not the kind of advice you read every day on these forums. :)
Cathedron that's hilarious, but no I don't want to slow the game down and have the other players be mad at me. I just want a character that is nearly useless in combat. And by that I mean, the other players would rather me doing other things in combat than casting spells or trying to hit the monsters, but still be useful enough to have around.
But I am not trying to be a dick and derail the game, just trying to think of non-conventional character preferably that do not use NPC classes, though thank you TriOmegaZero. And my main focus is to be incredibly useful outside of combat, but pretty much a buffer in combat. Like "I cast cat's grace, then use aid another," Rinse and repeat for combat.
I would prefer never to make an attack roll against a monster directly, ever. But something that outside of combat I am invaluable.
I wouldn't make a completely broken character on purpose or try to ruin the other player's fun, if anything this will enhance their fun during combat as they won't really ever have to wait for me, and I'll be helping them with useful spells.
I'll post the build when I am done with it. I am working on it right now.
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Divination spells are probably a good choice-- I don't really know of any that directly contribute to combat. My suggestion though would be an Int-based Bard. They get decent buffs on their spell list and through Bardic Performance, you'll have tons of skill points, and you also get Cure spells, oddball spells like Unwitting Ally, Blood Biography, and Create Treasure Map.
I think a Gnome bard would do best here, as the Strength penalty and Con/Cha bonus helps you be "non-combatant". A Halfling would be a good choice too, but since the Dex bonus improves your ranged attacks, you'd be more likely to have a party mate yell at you for never picking up a bow.
Once you get suitable level, start taking item creation feats. That way you can contribute to the group's gear as well.
Just be aware, in order for this to work well, you're going to have to get pretty good with improvising clever non-combat solutions on the fly and creative uses for all those skill points. Good luck!
partical physicist. your fighter will love you once you invent a lightsaber for him!
i once played a character like that, heaps of fun. my rogue was on pa int-wise with the party wizard, and he specialised in bluff, disguise and forgery. his job was to break the rest of the group out of prison in the same way the faceman breaks murdock out of the va hospital in the A-team tv series. he was next to useless in a stand-up fight, but i could always seem to contribute something, either aid another on the fighter or just intimidate to give foes shaken.
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Hmm... I have a few ideas...
First, alchemist (mind chemist)2 for double the intelligence on knowledge rolls.
Then, pick up bard (archivist)2 for the option to take 20 on knowledge rolls once/day.
Now go to lore oracle 2 and pick up the Think on it revelation in order to reroll a failed knowledge check 1/day with a +10 competence bonus on the roll.
Remember, this whole time you're stacking up all the intellect you can.
You now have decent saves, and a terrible attack bonus. You're well on your way to becoming useless in combat. You're level 6 as well. Let's see... your bab is 3 at the moment...
You'll want to be human at this point, with your bonus into int. Hopefully, you're starting with a 20 int here.
you've had four feats so far, which should be endurance, iron will, skill focus (any knowledge skill) and combat expertise.
These choices let you take two levels of Living monolith prestige class. This gives you some defensive abilities.
The feat here is dodge. This lets you take...
Student of war prestige class, two levels. You get two very nice things here. First, you can burn a move action as a knowledge check to gain a +1 bonus against a specific creature. *pick the defensive stance for +1 to ac and saves*. You can do this against every creature in the combat, one after another. That should keep you busy, and still give you a standard action to cast a buffing spell via oracle on a player. You could pick up a wand for this as well.
The second bonus here, and the bigger one, is that you get to use int with dex to ac when you're using armor OR a shield. So grab a mithril shield *no asf*, and you're looking pretty good.
bard is 6+int
Alchemist is 4+int
Oracle is 4+int
Living Monolith is 2+
Student of war is 6+
by level ten, your base int should be 22, for +6 to skills via int, +1 from the human bonus, and two additional skill points from a favored class. You should also have a +4 int headband if you can get away with it.
You should have right around 114 skill points. There are 10 knowledge skills. So you can max out all 10 knowledge skills and still have 14 points to spend elsewhere. *if* you do that, here's what your knowledge skills would look like.
10 ranks + 3 favored class bonus + 8 int + 8 int again + 1 bardic knowledge for a base bonus of +30.
Once per day you can take 20 on a roll, and once per day you can reroll a failed check. So if there's something you REALLY need to know, roll normally. If you fail, you can reroll with a +10 bonus and take 20 on the roll for a total of a 60 on the roll.
Not too shabby, me thinks.
Of course, you could totally sub out living monolith and student of war if you're not really interested in getting int to ac. In that case, you could pick up some rogue levels, one level of cloistered cleric will grab you another +1 to knowledge rolls, and with knowledge (memory) domain, you can use a standard action to reroll a knowledge check wisdom+3 times a day.
A wizard divination (foresight) level could net you the prescience ability.
Prescience (Su): At the beginning of your turn, you may, as a free action, roll a single d20. At any point before your next turn, you may use the result of this roll as the result of any d20 roll you are required to make. If you do not use the d20 result before your next turn, it is lost. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
A level of inquisitor will let you add your wisdom bonus to knowledge checks as well.
Lore Warden (Fighter) 4/Cutpurse (Rogue) 4/Diviner ?
How about a kleptomaniac that constantly disrupts the game by being awesome at stealing things? Not only will you be pretty darn subpar in a fight, but probably also infuriating to the DM, especially if villains rely on pulling out wands or potions/only have one spell component pouch etc. When the DM responds by having nothing available to steal, start sundering backpacks/belts/pants etc.
Grab things like Combat Expertise, then Improved Steal, Greater Steal, Quick Steal, Improved Sunder, Greater Sunder, Agile Maneuvers...
The alternate route is to get really good at disarming things. Either you'll make encounters laughable (Disarm can get pretty high pretty fast), or you'll be completely useless. Heck, once you get quick steal and disarm, you can take a weapon AND a backup weapon away.
Diviner is always nice in ridiculous builds like this to spend a round casting True Strike. Nothing like spending a round casting True Strike just to steal the bad guy's necklace.
Edit: The cutpurse ability to KNOW the perception roll before making the sleight of hand check is SO frustrating as a DM. It basically makes the roll public, and people will be able to see if he's fudging it to mess up your character. Plus, if you're good at stealing stuff, it's going to constantly put the DM under pressure to define what there is to steal, and he'll look terrible if he's constantly making people walk around with absolutely nothing on them. If he threatens you with jail, it may be nice to have a couple levels in Wizard, maybe even be a conjuration specialist with the teleportation school to get a short teleport.
Also, a character with maxed out Bluff who is careful about the lies he tells can be SUPER INFURIATING to everyone.
Another easy way to make a combat useless character is to make a Dual Cursed Oracle with two debilitating curses. But then you can take Misfortune, and, as written, make your DMs day a nightmare. There's nothing more annoying than a character saying "What did you roll....Oh, reroll that!" 20 times a session.
Now that I'm thinking about it, there are so many options for infuriating but somewhat interesting characters....
Hmm... I have a few ideas...
First, alchemist (mind chemist)2 for double the intelligence on knowledge rolls.
Then, pick up bard (archivist)2 for the option to take 20 on knowledge rolls once/day.
Now go to lore oracle 2 and pick up the Think on it revelation in order to reroll a failed knowledge check 1/day with a +10 competence bonus on the roll.
Remember, this whole time you're stacking up all the intellect you can.
You now have decent saves, and a terrible attack bonus. You're well on your way to becoming useless in combat. You're level 6 as well. Let's see... your bab is 3 at the moment...
You'll want to be human at this point, with your bonus into int. Hopefully, you're starting with a 20 int here.
you've had four feats so far, which should be endurance, iron will, skill focus (any knowledge skill) and combat expertise.
These choices let you take two levels of Living monolith prestige class. This gives you some defensive abilities.
The feat here is dodge. This lets you take...
Student of war prestige class, two levels. You get two very nice things here. First, you can burn a move action as a knowledge check to gain a +1 bonus against a specific creature. *pick the defensive stance for +1 to ac and saves*. You can do this against every creature in the combat, one after another. That should keep you busy, and still give you a standard action to cast a buffing spell via oracle on a player. You could pick up a wand for this as well.
The second bonus here, and the bigger one, is that you get to use int with dex to ac when you're using armor OR a shield. So grab a mithril shield *no asf*, and you're looking pretty good.
bard is 6+int
Alchemist is 4+int
Oracle is 4+int
Living Monolith is 2+
Student of war is 6+by level ten, your base int should be 22, for +6 to skills via int, +1 from the human bonus, and two additional skill points from a favored class. You should also have a +4 int headband if you can get away with it.
You should have right around 114 skill points....
(* )_(* ) oh...my...god...yes this will my next dmpc its so beautiful
Following on from Sylvanite.
The court Bard prestige class is great. You could tell really bad jokes to distract your enemy, take feats like Dazzling display, the Court Bards ability drops the enemies to hit and damage rather than boosting your own teams,
Take Dodge, mobility, disarm feats, max out sleight of hand and play a halfling? Run around the battlefield with huge AC, distracting, stealing, disarming your opponents.
This would really wind the DM up and you'd still be useful as a non-combatant.