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With the amazing introduction of archetypes, Pathfinder has become a game where you can always play the same class but have a fundamentally different character each time.
That in mind, Im wondering how widespread and diverse the options really are. So Im going to pose a question here.
If you had a five player table and every player decided to roll up a fighter, how do you think it would look? Are there enough different, effective weapon styles for everyone to have their own niche and still be relevant?
To be clear, Im talking about a hypothetical game involving five players who all decide to play single-classed fighters, and by fighter, I mean the core class, not just the role.
This sort of question depends a lot on the level of play. 5x 15th level fighters is a lot different from 5x 1st level fighters.
What level range did you have in mind?
have a uber AC at the front
then a massive TH damage dealer & reacher just beyond
2 archers, one of which is a mini skill monkey and the other has UMD
I like messing with 1 class parties
I wonder what is the best?
I'd definitely suggest two of them grabbing a trait that gives them Heal as a class skill. It should help them get along without too much divine healing or spending too much on potions. A healer's kit and someone to aid them should prove valuable. Maybe even someone with Skill Focus (Heal) at level one. That would help a great deal.
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All-Fighter Five Person Party, AKA, the Pentet
I'm going to try and keep this completely race-neutral, so of course human fighters would be getting additional feats, and other races would get their other things. Race-exclusive favoured class benefits aren't being taken into account, either.
Fighter #1: Two-Handed Warrior
Role: Wrecks the house with damage
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus
Does: Damage. Damage, damage, damage
At level 6...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Combat Reflexes, Outflank, Weapon Specialization, Lunge
Does: Even more damage with Overhand Chop
At level 11...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Combat Reflexes, Outflank, Weapon Specialization, Lunge, Iron will, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Critical Focus
Does: Even MORE damage with Backswing, trip anyone that gets uppity
At level 16...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Combat Reflexes, Outflank, Weapon Specialization, Lunge, Iron will, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Critical Focus, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Staggering Critical
Does: Overhand Chop and Spring Attack keep the fighter doing great damage while staying safely away from of full attacks and out of reach
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Fighter #2: Dragoon
Role: Battlefield control, makes spellcasting a pain
Feats: Power Attack
Does: Damage
At Level 6...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Step Up, Following Step
Does: More damage thanks to Spear Training's increased bonus damage, chases enemies down with following step
At Level 11...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Step Up, Following Step, Step Up and Strike, Combat Reflexes, Disruptive, Spellbreaker, Iron Will
Does: Can attack adjacent squares with Spinning Lance, gets a Banner (per the Cavalier ability) to boost ally saves vs fear, makes spellcasters unhappy with Disruptive and Spellbreaker
At Level 11...
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Step Up, Following Step, Step Up and Strike, Combat Reflexes, Disruptive, Spellbreaker, Iron Will, Pin Down, Combat Expertise, Improved Reposition, Greater Reposition, Quick Reposition
Does: Stops enemies from fleeing with Pin Down, keeps them where other fighters can hit them with reposition
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Fighter #3: Armoured Fighter
Role: Tank
Feats: Toughness, Weapon Finesse
Does: Has a high AC, takes getting pummelled, flanks with other fighters
At Level 6...
Feats: Toughness, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, Iron Will, Outflank, Combat Expertise, Endurance
Does: Can boost his defenses further with Combat Expertise, starts rocking some DR
At Level 11...
Feats: Toughness, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, Iron Will, Outflank, Combat Expertise, Endurance, Diehard, Shield Focus, Antagonize, Stalwart, Improved Stalwart
Does: Uses Antagonize to debuff enemies and force them to target him, uses stalwart to get massive DR boosts
At Level 16...
Feats: Toughness, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, Iron Will, Outflank, Combat Expertise, Endurance, Diehard, Shield Focus, Antagonize, Stalwart, Improved Stalwart, Greater Shield Focus, Saving Shield, Mobility, Lightning Reflexes
Does: Saving Shield can give adjacent allies an AC bump when they're targetted
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Fighter #4: Tactician
Role: Even More Control, grants allies Teamwork feat, gets 4+int skill points instead of 2+int skill points
Feats: Toughness
Does: Fighters
At Level 6...
Feats: Toughness, Iron Will, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Combat Reflexes, Broken Wing Gambit, Weapon Specialization
Does: Grants all allies Broken Wing Gambit teamwork feat with Tactician ability (as per Cavalier ability)
At Level 11...
Feats: Toughness, Iron Will, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Combat Reflexes, Broken Wing Gambit, Weapon Specialization, Step Up, Following Step, Step Up And Strike, Disruptive, Spellbreaker
Does: Chases fleeing enemies down and hits them, messes up spellcasters
At Level 16...
Feats: Toughness, Iron Will, Weapon Focus, Outflank, Combat Reflexes, Broken Wing Gambit, Weapon Specialization, Step Up, Following Step, Step Up And Strike, Disruptive, Spellbreaker, Pin Down, Combat Patrol, Critical Focus, Tiring Critical, Exhausting Critical
Does: Makes peeps tired, grants his INT bonus as an insight bonus to ally attacks 3+int times/day with Battle Insight
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Fighter #5: Archer
Role: Firing many shots, grappling from ranged, disrupting spells
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Does: Shoots into melee like a boss
At Level 6...
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus, Rapid Shot, Weapon Specialization, Agile Manoeuvres, Manyshot
Does: Shoots a lot of arrows
At Level 11...
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus, Rapid Shot, Weapon Specialization, Agile Manoeuvres, Manyshot, Snap Shot, Clustered Shots, Disrupting Shot, Combat Expertise, Improved Grapple
Does: Doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity when firing bow, can make attacks of opportunity with bow, totals damage before applying DR, grapples enemies from range, can mess with spellcasters using Disrupting Shot
At Level 16...
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus, Rapid Shot, Weapon Specialization, Agile Manoeuvres, Manyshot, Snap Shot, Clustered Shots, Disrupting Shot, Combat Expertise, Improved Grapple, Improved Snap Shot, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Iron Will
Does: Threatens 10 feet with Snap Shot instead of 5
Sorry the Dragoon and Tactician are less than inspired, started getting tired :/
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On the plus side, PF enables very diverse fighting styles for fighters. Diverse combat roles are quite doable. On the minus side, you're going to have serious problems on the magical front. So, here's some ideas:
The Hammer: 2WF fighter with Power Attack and all that. His job is to smash the face of a big one enemy.
The Anvil: probably a S&B fighter. His job would be to stabilize movements on the battlefield and keep some space for the Engineer and Commander. Also important to back up The Hammer when he gets surrounded.
The Whirlwind: focused on clearing out multiple enemies. Obviously needs Whirldwind, but probably Combat Patrol as well. Lunge and the Polearm Fighter archetype might work nicely here. If you're fighting a lot of humanoids, Trip and Disarm work well with that, to create mass disruption in enemy ranks. He's kind of the opposite of The Hammer; the Hammer attacks one guy hard, The Whirlwind deals with the many lesser foes.
The Engineer: probably best done with a Lorewarden with a Light Crossbow, Focused Shot and whatever he needs to make full attacks with it. Only barely a fighter (little armor and all), he ignores Strength in favor of Dex and Int. He's the guy making the Knowledge checks to identify enemies and how to fight them.
The Commander: high-charisma Fighter. Should probably use Cosmopolitan to get UMD and Diplomacy as class skills. He provides magical problem-solving (healing, dispelling, Fly spells...) Also with the Dazzling Display to provide some mass debuffing.
The Chaser: mounted (use Leadership later on for the hardest-to-break mount you can find). His role is to catch enemies trying to get away or staying at a distance. For example enemy casters with Wind Wall.
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You're going to have enormous problems with some enemies; creatures with multiple DR for example. Dragons are going to be really hard without clerical energy protection and gratuitous flight enabling by the wizard.
On the other hand, you could really make a killing with some teamwork feats, since many can be taken as combat bonus feats and the party as a whole has enough feats to spare on them.
You should make extensive use of feats that let you weasel into the class abilities of other classes, like Eldritch Heritage (familiar -> scout/UMD buddy for the Commander, Celestial Wings for The Hammer)and Leadership.
I think you'll probably be best against relatively mundane enemies, like big animal monsters, giants and humanoid armies. Exotic creatures with versatile movement and immunities are expensive (UMD) to fight.
I was just playing around with a group of all fighters to take through an AP. (Granted, it may be 2050 before we get to it). I was thinking of the following. This is a mercenary group of all humans. All with Quick Draw fairly early as a main tactic will be to fire arrows, and force an enemy to engage (when possible). The only area I technically break away is with the hound master. I want the animal companion for Scent.
TH Archetype: The only one with optimized stats in that he has a 20 Str.
Tactician Archetype: High intelligence (16), Skill Focus in Perception to fill that need.
Archer Archetype: Straight forward.
Hound Master (Cavalier): Our diplomacy focused member since it's a class skill.
If you want to stay strictly with fighters, one could pick feats to help get close to what I'm trying to accomplish with the Hound Master, it was just easier to go that route.
If I were to add a fifth fighter, I'd probably go with a Polearm Fighter archetype. She'd be a nice addition for tight cooridors to be right behind the front liner.
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Tactician Archetype with at least 13 charisma, nab Skill Focus(Knowledge), to grab Eldritch Heritage, choose the Arcane Bloodline, nab a familiar, then grab Improved Familiar for a Faerie Dragon.
Later, grab the Boon Companion feat.
Now, a bag of scrolls, and wands later, you have a "wizard" with nothing but fighter levels.
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To get the most out of the familiar, I recommend investing heavily in skills the familiar will also be using; Perception and Stealth. Because nearly all familiars are tiny with Dex 14+, and Stealth is a class skill for animals, familiars tend to have enourmously high Stealth ratings. So for scouting purposes, the familiar can replace the rogue. Meanwhile, Perception isn't horrible to have yourself. Oh, and familiars can also bring unusual senses (Scent, Blindsense) to the table.
Mounts, I'd do with Leadership, otherwise they'll probably be too fragile.
It might also be useful to train someone (perhaps a familiar) to throw alchemical weaponry, to shake up the energy damage repertoire.
Smokebombs create lack of visibility even against a lot of creatures that see through invisibility. If (using all those fighter feats) everyone happens to have Blind-Fighting... Well, it shuts down sneak attacks, a lot of archery and spellcasting...
I think you might actually need MORE Knowledge-monkeying than a normal party, because you can't just chew through resistant enemies that easily, you don't have quite that many elemental options without full casters.
Preparation BEFORE the adventure becomes more important, since you may need to bring in specific gear against enemies, due to less all-purpose spell solutions. I mean, technology can do a lot, but you do need to be prepared. So consulting with sages/experts to find out what you might expect in this dungeon.